Baku, Azerbaijan, June 5
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Russia is ready to expand its cooperation with Iran in the oil and banking sectors, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
He made the remarks on June 4 in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in the Russian capital, Iran's Mehr news agency reported June 5.
During the meeting, Zarif highlighted the role of Russia in the progress of Iran's nuclear talks with the P5+1 group.
He announced Iran's readiness to work on drafting a document jointly with Russia to promote bilateral strategic ties.
Lavrov, for his part, welcomed increasing cooperation between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union.
Officials in Moscow said in mid-April that Russia had started a strategic "oil for goods" barter trade with Iran, stressing that the due proceedings were already "working well".
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the country was providing a "considerable" volume of goods to Iran in exchange for the Iranian crude oil without providing any specific figures.
Russia was the 18th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.
Iran exported $296.5 million of non-oil goods to Russia and imported $667.18 million of non-oil goods from the country.
Edited by CN