President Erdogan Denounces Sanctions

Turkey, Iran Reiterate Resolve to Expand Ties

Date: 15 June 2019 - 22:45

News ID: ۶۷۰۲۴

DUSHANBE (Dispatches) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan here on Saturday expressed their opposition to any sanction and coercive policy in the region.
The two sides met on the sidelines of the 5th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA held in Tajikistan’s capital.
The Iranian president stressed that Tehran is interested in expanding mutual ties with Turkey in all areas, particularly in the economic field.
Efforts to strengthen the current cooperation to raise the trade volumes between the two sides to $30 billion should be stepped up, he said.
"Over the past years, long strides have been taken to deepen the two sides’ mutual relations and the trend should be strengthened further,” Rouhani said.
President Rouhani then described regional cooperation between Iran and Turkey as significant and said bilateral relations with Turkey and trilateral relations among Iran, Turkey and Russia are in line with strengthening regional peace and security.
For his part, Erdogan said mutual ties between Iran and Turkey have been expanding day by day. He said it is highly significant to strengthen and deepen the current ties in various areas.
"Turkey is determined to expand its ties with Iran in all areas,” he said.
Rouhani also met with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, saying expansion of relations with neighboring and friendly countries is among main priorities of the Islamic Republic's foreign policy.
"Stability and security of regional countries are intertwined," the Iranian president said.
"Bilateral and multilateral consultation and more cooperation are the only ways to reduce differences and solve regional problems," he added, expressing Iran's readiness to play a role in this regard.
Rouhani also stressed the importance of forging unity and integrity in the Muslim world and said Tehran and Doha can make joint efforts to achieve this goal.
Cordial relations between the two countries are beneficial to regional nations, he added as he urged both sides to make use of great potential to further boost economic relations to serve the two nations' interests.
The Qatari emir, for his part, said dialogue, collective cooperation and political approaches are the only solutions to regional conflicts. Al Thani said Qatar is keen to expand all-out ties with Iran.
Talks With Putin
On Friday, Rouhani met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss expansion of business ties, particularly in the energy sector, despite Washington's unilateral sanctions.
The two sides met on the sidelines of the 19th Summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
Rouhani hailed the "good pace" of the implementation of economic agreements between Tehran and Moscow, particularly in the field of energy.
"The meeting of the Iran-Russia Joint Commission for Cooperation that is going to be held in Tehran next week will accelerate this process,” he said.
"By adopting a law on trade with Eurasia in the Parliament, we will provide the preparations as soon as possible, which will accelerate business cooperation," he noted.
Putin said his country "remains interested in being present and investing in Iran’s energy sector and is committed to cooperating in a wide range of areas of interest to the two countries."
Last month, Russian energy giant Gazprom said it was evaluating potential participation in Iran's energy projects.
Gazprom has signed a roadmap on implementation of projects in Iran and a memorandum of understanding on an LNG project in Iran.
Rouhani and Putin also vowed to boost Tehran-Moscow relations in other bilateral, regional and international areas. "Despite the existing problems, the two countries' trade relations are developing," Putin said in the meeting.
He said his country will implement the agreements it has signed with Iran on the construction of new units in the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
The remarks came one month after the U.S. Department of State warned that sanctions would be imposed on countries that provided assistance to expanding Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant.
In 1992, Iran reached a deal with Russia on the first phase of the Bushehr project. The two sides signed a number of documents in November 2014, expanding cooperation in the field of peaceful use of atomic energy and opening the possibility of construction in Iran of up to eight power units.