Tehran, Iran, April 9
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran and Azerbaijan have the capacity to boost their trade turnover up to $10 billion.
Mohammad Baqer Bahrami, Iran's former ambassador to Baku, said that the two countries' trade is currently below one billion dollars which is completely unacceptable, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is currently in Tehran for an official visit. In regards to Azerbaijani president's visit, Bahrami said that it would have been better if this visit was made earlier.
"Iran and Azerbaijan have many things in common. So the two neighboring countries can have better relations," he said.
He expressed hope that by pursuing a new approach, Tehran and Baku can manage to boost their bilateral trade soon.
"Iran has good neighborly relations with Armenia, so it can play an important role in solving the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis," Bahrami said, explaining that Armenia has occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's recognized territories.
Iran Customs Administration's latest report suggests that the trade turnover between Tehran and Baku surpassed $514million dollars in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20.
Iran's exports to Azerbaijan accounted for $482 million of the mentioned figure.
Tehran also imported $32 million worth of goods from Baku in the mentioned period.
The mentioned figures show that Iran's trade balance with Azerbaijan stood at $450 million previous year.
Iran exported 2,130 cars worth $15,080,000 to Azerbaijan last year, which is 21.5 per cent more than in the preceding year.
Iran's total non-oil exports to foreign countries (excluding gas condensates) stood at $31.332 billion in the previous year, while the country's total imports amounted to $50.818 billion.
The figures mark annual trade balance of negative 19.486 billion dollars for Iran.
Edited by C.N.