Tehran, Iran, June 4
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad - Trend:
An official with Iran’s Ministry of Roads and Urban Development warned that the Iran-Turkmenistan road transportation could suffer a major setback if Ashgabat decides to unilaterally increase road tolls.
Turkmenistan plan to increase road tolls for Iranian truck drivers by 50 percent, Adolhashem Hassannia said during a meeting with Turkmenistan’s Ambassador to Tehran Ahmad Ghorbanov on June 4, ILNA news agency reported.
The unilateral decision could affect the two nations’ road transportation and transit cooperation, he added.
Hassannia further called on the envoy to deliver his message to Turkmen officials to either reduce the tolls or reconsider their decision.
Iran has not increased the road tolls in good faith and in an attempt to help boost performance of the two countries’ transport fleets, he stressed.
Ghorbanov, for his part, said Ashgabat welcomes any economical plan that helps improve transportation cooperation and facilitates the transit capacity between the two neighboring nations.
Back in May, a joint economic meeting of Iran and Turkmenistan was held in the presence of Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and Iranian transport minister Abbas Akhoundi, where the two sides explored avenues of further cooperation in railway, road, and aviation sectors.
Underlining that the transit capacity between Iran and Turkmenistan is much more than its current volume, the Iranian minister also called for more efforts to increase mutual production.
The Turkmen official, for his part, hoped that the meeting would bring good results and pave the way for growth of bilateral ties between the two sides.