Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug 9
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Pacific Affairs Ebrahim Rahimpour has said that Iran’s trade ties with Russia and Azerbaijan witnessed a significant boost immediately after the removal of sanctions followed by the implementation of the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA).
He also touched upon an agreement between Iran and Russia for constructing nuclear power plants in the Islamic Republic adding that Russia will build eight power plants in Iran.
Russia has constructed Iran's first nuclear power plant, Bushehr, with 1,000 megawatts capacity and it is preparing for building new plants in Iran.
Iran has planned to increase its nuclear power generation capacity to 2,000 megawatts by 2035.
Obstacles against improving Iran’s ties with Russia and Azerbaijan are being removed one by one, Rahimpour added.
Azerbaijan's exports to Iran in 1H16 increased 203% to $23.61 million, while its imports from Iran increased 55.5% to $66.137 million according to The State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan's statistics.
There is not any official statistics about Iran, Russia trade turnover during this period, but Iran's Ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanayee said earlier that the trade exchange between the two countries in the first half of 2016 registered 67 percent growth in compare to the corresponding period last year.
Rahimpour elaborated on a decision by Moscow to allocate a $5 billion loan to Tehran saying that the decision is very likely to be fulfilled in future.
The deputy minister welcomed Russia to invest in Iran saying this would benefit both, Iran and Russia.