Iran Calls For Increase Of Trade With Armenia To $1b

Tabriz, E.Azarbaijan, Feb 2, IRNA -- East Azerbaijan Province Governor General, Ahmad Alirezabeigi declared the trade volume between Yerevan and Tehran ˈwillˈ hit $1 billion. He made the remarks in a meeting with the local officials of Armenia’s Syunik Province.‎ ˈCurrent volume of trade transactions between Iran and Armenia is currently $500 million which should be doubled in the near future,” Alirezabeigi said. The Iranian provincial official stressed development of relations between the two countries in all fields, including the fields of agriculture, industry, transportation and energy. “Collaboration among Armenia’s Syunik Province economic activists and Iran’s East Azarbaijan activists helps to boosting bilateral relations at the national level.” Governor General of Syunik province Suren Khachatrian, for his part, thanked Iran’s technical helps and called Iranian helps very important in his country’s development process, noting that Yerevan is committed to expand ties with Islamic Republic. In recent years, Iran and its Northern neighbor Armenia have boosted cooperation, signed agreements on energy cooperation and agreed to cooperate in technology and research and to enhance ties in commerce and economy. In December 2011, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart pledged to further expand ˈhigh-level relationsˈ between their nations and, in particular, give new impetus to the implementation of joint energy projects that have fallen behind schedule. In early October, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian met at the UN Headquarters in New York to discuss bilateral ties and regional and international issues./end