Iran, Russia stress support for private sectors in sanctions era

President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Sergey Katyrin, met with his Iranian counterpart Gholamhossein Shafe’ei on Saturday in Tehran, during which the two sides discussed coordinated efforts for the holding of Iran-Russia’s annual trade forum.

The Russian side maintained that oil and gas, agriculture, foodstuff, transport and logistics are among the main areas of cooperation on which the two countries’ private sectors can confer during the upcoming Iran-Russia’s trade forum.

The Iranian side, for his part, noted that the US sanctions have created a new condition for cooperation between the business people of the two countries.

As proposed by the president of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, the next trade forum of Iran and Russia will be held in Russia’s southwestern city of Saratov in July 2019.

According to Russia’s Customs figures, Iran's exports to the Eurasian country rose by 30% last year, reaching from $303 million in 2016 to $392 million in 2017. Meanwhile, Iran’s imports from Russia dropped from $1.8 billion to $1.3 billion in the same corresponding period.

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