Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 3
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Italy wants to revive relations with Iran, said Italian Economic Development Minister Federica Guidi.
On the verge of her trip to Iran, Guidi said, "We want to turn the page and revive relations between Iran and Italy," Iran's IRNA news agency reported August 3.
She added that Italy had had very good economic and trade ties with Iran before sanctions were imposed on Iran. "Italy was the first trade partner of Iran in Europe. Trade between the two countries amounted to €7 billion in 2011, while it has dropped to around €1 billion."
"Nearly all large Italian companies were present in Iran. We want to identify new scopes of activity to resume economic and trade transactions," she said.
Guidi will lead a delegation of traders and businessmen to Iran on August 4. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni will accompany the delegation.
Italy was the 9th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods during the first quarter of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 21), according to the Iran Customs Administration.
Iran exported $124.605 million of non-oil goods to Italy and imported $205.856 million of non-oil goods from the country during the three-month period.
Edited by CN