Salehi Calls For Enhancing Iran-Pakistan Trade Ties

Islamabad, Feb 16, IRNA – Iran Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi on Thursday called for increasing the trade volume between Iran and Pakistan. Talking to IRNA after meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, Salehi said there is a lot of mutual understanding between the two countries on regional issues. “We have always have very good bilateral talks and this is the fourth time that we have this opportunity to meet each other”, said the foreign minister. Salehi arrived in Islamabad last night for talks with Pakistani officials with focus on bilateral matters and also to discuss agenda for the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend a trilateral meeting in Islamabad. Salehi further said that Iran and Pakistan are witnessing materializations of many important agreements that were made in the last meeting of Joint Economic Commission (JEC). Pakistan’s exports to Iran are rapidly increasing and 'this is what we wished for,' Salehi said. “We are aiming at a very high trade volume I wouldn’t like to put a number now, we have just discussed it with the minister and we hope that this will go to few billion dollars soon”, the minister added. Salehi said there are so many infrastructure projects that are been undertaken between Iran and Pakistan. “The gas pipeline, the electricity transmission, road and railway connection between the two countries that were also discussed in detail, of course we will have to expedite and to enhance the implementation of these projects further”, said the foreign minister. He said "in the nutshell I would say that future is very bright between the two countries as will of the two countries both on the government and public levels is to increase the contacts between the two countries in all domains."/end