TEHRAN – Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash and Oman’s Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology Saeed Bin Hamoud Al-Mawal have held talks in Tehran to discuss bilateral ties and issues of mutual interest.
Officials from the two countries planned to broaden transportation ties between the two neighbors for commercial and touristic purposes through various methods, including rail, road, air, and maritime routes and a combination of these modes.
They weighed plans for cooperation in different modes of transportation, including maritime, rail, air, road, and also multimodal transport.
Iran proposed reaching a comprehensive transportation agreement.
The Omani minister, in turn, approved the idea of ‘comprehensive maritime transport agreement’, which now needs to be ratified by the Iranian Parliament.
In the maritime sector, launching direct shipping lines between the ports of Iran and Oman, particularly between Bandar Abbas and Shinas Port, was emphasized with the purpose of boosting commercial activities.
Moreover, the two sides welcomed joint investment in the ports, particularly in Chabahar and Shinas Port.
The Iranian roads minister also suggested that Oman will identify a site in Iran for investment in a dry port.
The two ministers also discussed plans to facilitate exports and imports with multimodal transit methods from Central Asia to Oman through Iran under the Ashgabat Agreement.
Signed in 2011, the Ashgabat Agreement is a multimodal transport deal among Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, India, Pakistan, and Oman for creating an international transport and transit corridor in order to facilitate the transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. The agreement came into force in April 2016.