Armenia confirms Rouhani’s presence at Oct. summit of EAEU leaders

TEHRAN (defapress) – Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has confirmed the participation of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at a high-profile summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in October.

News ID: 78624

Date: 07 September 2019 - 12:15

Leaders of EAEU member countries as well as other partners of the bloc, including Iran and Singapore, will take part at the summit on October 2, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said in an interview on Friday.

Asked about Armenia’s expectations of Rouhani’s visit, the foreign minister said “we have a wide-scale agenda with Iran, and we are looking for frameworks and effective ways for cooperation in the fields of regional security, development of infrastructures, and energy diversity to reach a positive result that would benefit all of our countries.”

“Armenia’s membership to the EAEU will provide the condition for us to expand cooperation with Iran, as well as Singapore and Egypt,” he added.

On August 10, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he had invited Rouhani to the EAEU meeting of leaders in Yerevan - a major regional organization which is said to help Tehran increase its non-oil export revenues amid US sanctions.

The invitation came more than a month after Iran ratified a parliamentary bill to launch a free trade zone with EAEU members, namely Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

The agreement is expected to hugely boost Iran’s trade capacity with countries to the north of a region in northern Asia and Eastern Europe called Eurasia.

According to Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, the agreement will officially take effect on October 26.

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