Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 9
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov who is leading a delegation to boost political and economical ties with Iran met the Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh on Monday.
Earlier the day, Minnikhanov met the Iranian Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari, SHANA news agency reported Mar. 9.
Expressing happiness over opening avenues for cooperation between the two countries, the Tatar president stressed efforts to preserve common ground.
"These commonalities have been very crucial to expanding relations in trade, research, education, technology, and industrial sections and we hope to be able to further develop these relations," he stated.
He added that his accompanying delegation of 45, consisting of officials and businessmen from the private and trade sections, are ready to join in on various projects.
Tatarstan is one of the most economically developed regions of Russia. The republic is highly industrialized, and ranks second only to Samara Oblast in terms of industrial production per square kilometer.
The region's main source of wealth is oil. Tatarstan produces 32 million metric tons of crude oil per year and has estimated oil reserves of more than 1 billion tons.
Edited by CN