Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes other countries could join implementation of a range of Russia-Iran projects, ITAR-TASS quoted. "We have a plenty of bilateral and multilateral prospective projects," Putin said at his meeting with Iranian First Vice-President Parviz Davoodi in Astana on 30 October. According to Putin, besides Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan also can take part in the development of transport infrastructure and Qatar in the power engineering field.
"Cooperation on the Caspian Sea is very important and prospective both for Iran and Russia," said Prime Minister, adding that the two countries maintain friendly relations which have been intensively developing in recent years. The trade turnover between Russia and Iran achieved almost $3.5bln. "The relations between Russia and Iran are comprehensively developing," Putin stressed. Putin and Davoodi took part in the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries' Prime Ministers in Astana on 30 October. Iran was represented as an observer. "From the very beginning we welcomed Iran's participation in the activity of this international organization as an observer," Putin said.
Davoodi said the relations between the two countries took a fast pace after the summit of the Caspian Sea countries' Presidents in Tehran. "Then you uttered a remarkable phrase that the cooperation between Russia and Iran does not contradict to the security in the region and meets the interests of all neighbouring countries. We would like to assure that the strong Russia meets the interests and expectations of the region and the entire world," he Davoodi.
"Despite rather good economic relations between the two countries, today's situation in the world and the general economic situation push Russia and Iran to more efficient and active cooperation," said Davoodi.