Iranian minister on upcoming Rouhani-Putin meeting (exclusive)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 17

By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:

Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi has stressed the significance of accelerating the development of bilateral relations with Russia in all fields as the two countries are gearing up for President Hassan Rouhani’s imminent visit to Moscow.

Vaezi, co-chairman of Iran-Russia Joint Economic Commission, who believes that Moscow-Tehran ties are turning into an all-out strategic cooperation, has briefed Trend on the ongoing economic cooperation between the two regional powers, and also documents which are likely to be discussed between President Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Trade turnover between the two countries saw a huge surge over the past year following the high level-talks between officials, rising by 80 percent to more than $2 billion, with energy, agriculture and defense sales forming the bulk of the transactions.

According to Vaezi, about 10 documents are expected to be inked for broadening cooperation between Iran and Russia during President Rouhani’s upcoming visit, expected to take place over the next two weeks.

Speaking about the documents, Vaezi described a document that draws up a roadmap for industrial cooperation as “very important”.

Elaborating on plans for deepening cooperation, he further added that Iran and Russia have targeted increasing the volume of bilateral trade to $10 billion over the coming three years.

Oil and gas fields

According to the Iranian minister, the sides consider cooperation in oil and gas fields as well as exporting crude.

He added that several Russian companies are studying opportunities for developing 11 oil fields in Iran and currently the representatives of Russia’s Gazprom are in Tehran for discussing projects on developing some fields.

The two sides have made efforts to put into operation an energy agreement under which Iran would export 100,000 barrels per day of oil to Russia.

Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak earlier said that Iran would supply the oil within the framework of the "oil-for-goods" arrangement between the two countries.

Iranian and Russian oil companies earlier signed seven memorandums of understanding to study the country’s oil fields.

Eurasian Economic Union

The two countries are discussing the issue of cooperation between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) on reduction of duties on some exports of goods, which may eventually lead to the elimination of customs duties in future, Vaezi noted.

The EEU is a regional political and economic bloc that aims to optimize the flow of goods and services between its members.

Power plants

According to the minister, the sides have made efforts to expand cooperation on building thermal and nuclear power plants in Iran.

He said that Iran and Russia have recently launched a project to construct four units at a thermal power plant in the Islamic Republic’s southern province of Hormozgan, adding that the cost of the project is estimated at $1.1 billion.

Back in February, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak attended a ceremony to launch the project in the southern city of Bandar Abbas.

The construction is set to be completed in the next five years.

Russia has reportedly agreed to provide Iran with a loan to cover 85 percent of the cost of the project.

Railways

Mahmoud Vaezi also touched upon talks with Moscow to electrify a train line, linking north-central Iran to the northeastern border with Turkmenistan.

He said the sides have finalized the talks on financial issues of the project and technical talks are almost over, expressing hope that the document on Russia’s participation in the railway project would be signed during the visit.

The earlier reports suggest that the 1.2 billion euros agreement would include construction of power stations and overhead power lines along the Garmsar-Inche Burun route in Iran.