Iran, Russia Ink Agreement on Transportation Cooperation

High-ranking Iranian and Russian officials endorsed an agreement to increase cooperation between the two countries in area of road transportation.

Manouchehr Salmanzadeh, an official in Iran's Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization, and Tatiana Yugeniuna, an official of Russia's Ministry of Transport, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Tehran on Wednesday in field of road transportation.

Based on the agreement, the two countries would facilitate road transportation and improve the infrastructures in this sector.

In relevant remarks last Sunday, Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanayee said that the volume of trade between Iran and Russia had hit $500 million because of the two sides’ determination to boost interactions, adding that both Tehran and Moscow were after a higher volume of commercial exchanges.

Sanayee said that the current level of economic relations between Iran and Russia could be raised even higher given the two countries’ vast potentials.

“Unfortunately, the previous round of sanctions left an adverse impact on the economic ties between Iran and Russia, to the point where our banking and trade ties were nearly paralyzed,” the Iranian ambassador noted.

He went on to add, however, “currently, we are making efforts to revitalize our economic relations, and we believe that the new round of US sanctions will not have a serious impact on the two countries’ relations”.

He said Russians have not abandoned any serious project in their interactions with Iran.

“Russia is our partner, and I don’t think the positions of any country in the region are as close to Iran as those of Russia,” Sanayee said. “I also think that the Russians have the same opinion that Iran’s positions in the international and regional arenas are the closet to them, although the two countries have their own particular views on certain issues."

Sanayee further noted that in the past five years, Iranian and Russian presidents had met and held talks for 16 times, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had visited Russia and held talks with the country’s officials for over 20 times in the same period.

source: Financial Tribune