Tehran, May 28 (MRUD NEWS)—Following the working visit of Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Alexander Novak, to Iran to convene bilateral meetings for broadening cooperation, three MoUs were signed on May 25 including the 12th protocol of the meeting for the Working Group on Transport Cooperation.
The protocol is signed by Iran Deputy Transport Minister, Shahriyar Afandizadeh, and Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Zverev.
Following the talks, the two countries are pursuing a policy to increase comprehensive cooperation in various sectors including economic, trade, business, transport, logistics, investment, financial, banking, energy and petrochemistry.
According to the official news from Russian Government, the two parties discussed the development of partnerships in the field of transport including logistics centres and services for the transshipment of Russian cargo at the ports of the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, and cross-border cooperation between the regions of Russia and Iran.
The International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is an important transport agenda which is expected to considerably boost transit and trade of Iran and Russia with the countries of the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf.
“It is a landmark project that could become key in promoting our trade and economic cooperation. Today’s traffic is about 15 million tons, and over the next three to five years, it may grow to 30-50 million tons. We agreed that we need to draw up a detailed action plan in order to start expanding the capacity of this transport logistics network. We also discussed the specific steps we need to take to increase the volume of transportation by sea and expand the use of seaports both on the territory of Russia and on the territory of Iran – with the launch of a container ferry service,” Alexander Novak added.
Iran and Russia continue working to create favorable conditions for expanding economic cooperation; as Alexander Novak said, “Special conditions are being created to support a dramatic expansion of cooperation".
While the commercial turnover had been almost $4 billion at the end of 2021, Tehran intends to boost Iran's trade with Russia to $40 billion, Iranian Petroleum Minister Javad Owji said, adding that a special working group headed by First Vice President of Iran had been established for this purpose.
Earlier in April 30, Transport Ministers of Iran, Rostam Ghasemi, and Russia Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation, Vitaly Savelyev, signed comprehensive transport agreement in Moscow after mutual negotiations.
Noteworthy, Iran, Russia joint Economic Commission is to be held soon and the high level meetings are preparing for the upcoming joint commission.