Iran-Russia Urge Expansion Of Sports Co-op

Moscow, Nov 4, IRNA – Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs of Iran Mohammad Abbasi and Russian Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko here on Saturday underlined development and expansion of bilateral Sports cooperation. Praising Iran's sports victories, Mutko voiced Moscow's readiness to cooperate with Iran in the fields of training coaches and referees. He announced that over 3,000 sport schools are training athletes in his country and that so far more than 40,000 athletes have been graduated from these schools. The Russian minister said that considering Iran's abilities in different arena of politics and sport, Moscow is interested in expansion of cooperation between the two countries. He underlined the need for active presence of both Iran and Russia in World Wrestling Federation ( Fila) decision making process. Abbasi, for his part, reiterated that a new memorandum of understanding on sport cooperation should be signed between the two countries. Abbasi arrived in Moscow on Monday to review issues of mutual interest with Russian officials. He meanwhile attended the sixth world assembly meeting of " Peace and Sport" in port city of Sushi, venue of winter Olympic of 2014./end