Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 4 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi will be departuring Iran for Afghanistan later today, for participation in the fourth Iran-Afghanistan economic commission meeting, Mehr reported.
Both countries are expected to sign a memorandum of mutual understanding in economic, business, tourism and other spheres soon.
Yesterday, some 30 Iranian experts have already left for Afghanistan to participate in the meeting.
Last week Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Musazai said Afghanistan welcomes the commission's gathering in Kabul and hope that it would result in further progress in bilateral cooperation.
Mosazai said Iran and Afghanistan, as next-door neighbors, share deep-seated lingual, cultural, religious and historic bonds, not to mention their political, economic and social cooperation.
"Cooperation between the two countries in the past ten years has been within the framework of this joint commission," the Afghan official said. "Trade between Iran and Afghanistan has grown in the past decade, mainly due to closer ties between the two countries."
Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in July Tehran has fulfilled its financial commitments for the reconstruction of war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Iran's aid to Afghanistan was provided in the form of infrastructure projects including the construction of 300 kilometers of roads, 207 kilometers of railways, supplying water and electricity and building clinics for special medical purposes, Salehi said earlier.
He also said Iran has invested more than USD 500 million in building roads, railroads, schools and hospitals in Afghanistan.
"We are hosting more than 3 million Afghan refugees in our country. More than 300,000 Afghan students attend our schools and over 8,000 students attend our universities," the Iranian minister said earlier.