(IRNA) - Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki conferred on Thursday with his Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta on expansion of economic and commercial ties between the two nations.
At the meeting, the two ministers signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on economic cooperation at Afghan Foreign Ministry, reports Trend.
The two foreign ministers vowed to help increase the current volume of trade in line with political and cultural cooperation between the two sides.
They also voiced readiness to sign agreement on 'preferential trade' to boost bilateral and regional cooperation.
Setting up border markets would help promote cooperation, the two ministers said.
They also called for facilitating border trade, dealing with smuggling of goods and commodities, and activating Iran-Afghanistan joint Chamber of Commerce.
The two sides called for banking, transportation, communications, agriculture, cultural, scientific, tourism and consular cooperation along with exploring investment opportunity in Afghanistan.
The MoU enables Iran to transit Afghan goods via land, sea and rail to the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf and Europe and vice versa.
The third Iran-Afghanistan Joint Economic Commission meeting will be held next year in Tehran.