Trade and border crossings with Iran to grow, says Turkey

A Turkish minister has said he expects trade with neighbouring Iran to grow to 20 billion dollars (15 billion euros) in 2011, Turkish media reported Friday.

Relations between NATO member Turkey and Iran have improved dramatically in recent years, particularly since the arrival of the ruling liberal Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002, which has pledged to pursue a regional foreign policy of "zero problems" with its neighbors, DPA reported.

After a Thursday meeting with Iranian assistant first vice- president and the spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Agha Mohammadi, Turkish State Minister Hayati Yazici said the two countries were planning to expand their trade relations - and to open up two new border crossings.

The trade volume between Turkey and Iran was 10 billion dollars in 2008, however it dropped to 5.5 billion dollars in 2009.

"Nevertheless, we have a large trade activity. So, we want to modernize customs points jointly, and increase trade volume to 20 billion dollars in 2011," Yazici said, according to the state-run Anatolian Agency.

Ankara's growing trade relations with Tehran could prove problematic. Iran is currently facing the possibility of being hit with trade sanctions over the issue of its nuclear program, which several western countries suspect is being used to develop weapons.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently said that he believes Iran's nuclear program is being developed strictly for civilian purposes and has called for pressure to be applied on other countries in the region, particularly Israel, to get rid of their nuclear arsenals.