Iran, Turkmenistan to Expand Cooperation in Caspian Sea

TEHRAN (defapress)- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Wafa Khadzhiev, said that his country considers Ashgabat as a friendly neighbor, voicing Tehran’s readiness to run joint projects in the Caspian Sea.

News ID: 75241

Date: 28 January 2019 - 13:59

Zarif, in the Sunday meeting in Tehran, stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran attaches great importance to its relations with Turkmenistan and considers the Central Asian neighbor as one of the closest countries to it.

“We always want to expand relations and cooperation with Turkmenistan in various fields, and we hope that we can use all the existing potentials to expand friendship and brotherhood,” added the Iranian top diplomat.

Referring to agreements on the Caspian Sea regime, the Iranian diplomatic chief declared Iran's readiness to implement joint projects in the Caspian Sea.

Expressing hope that the joint commission meeting would be held in the near future, Zarif said that no issue should affect the existing friendship.

For his part in the meeting, Khadzhiev underlined the importance of his country's relations with Iran, and said, "We are trying to remove obstacles to further expand and strengthen bilateral cooperation and relations between the two countries.”

In a related front, earlier on Sunday, the Turkmen diplomat met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi.

The two high-ranking officials conferred on ways to further broaden political and economic cooperation between Tehran and Ashgabat, and emphasized the need to find new capacities in bilateral relations, specially in energy and transit fields.

They also agreed to update the roadmap for the expansion of the two countries' ties in light of the new developments.

In March 2018, Tehran and Ashgabat concluded over a dozen MoUs during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit to the Central Asian country.

The 13 MoUs signed in the presence of the two countries' presidents covered cooperation on cultural, artistic, scientific and educational exchanges as well as commercial and industrial cooperation.

Other areas of cooperation covered by the MoUs included aviation industry and scientific exchanges.

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