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By Sara Rajabova

Iranian and Turkmen presidents came together in Ashgabat to discuss the expansion of bilateral cooperation.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani paid a two-day visit to Turkmenistan on March 10 to discuss ways in which to expand bilateral ties to both countries' benefit.

The heads of states voiced their determination to bring the level of their annual trade turnover to $60 billion in ten years.

During a meeting with his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on March 11, President Rouhani expressed Iran’s readiness for boosting energy cooperation with Turkmenistan.

“Iran is willing to continue buying gas from Turkmenistan and boost cooperation in electricity trade as well as providing technical and engineering services to the neighboring country,” Rouhani said.

The Islamic Republic also can cooperate with Turkmenistan in energy transit, he said, adding the two sides will boost their goods transit via railways to 10 million metric tons per year.

Rouhani further said Iran also would facilitate road transport to activate Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan corridor to boost the volume of trade turnover in the region.

Iran and Turkmenistan are also willing to facilitate banking cooperation in order to expand trade.

Rouhani also urged further cooperation in protecting environment, fighting drug smuggling as well as managing water sources.

Berdimuhamedov, for his part, said the two-way trade has increased in oil and gas, transport, agriculture, water and electricity. He called for increasing trade in science, sport, and tourism sectors.

The two countries also signed 17 cooperation agreements in political, economic and cultural areas as well as cooperation on environment and fighting terrorism during Iranian president's visit to Ashgabat.

In February, Iran and Turkmenistan signed agreements to facilitate customs trade. Facilitating the travel of nationals and merchants and easing the issuance of visas were among the agreements.

In 2014, Iranian minister of industry, mining and trade Mohammad-Reza Nematzadeh said Iran and Turkmenistan have the capacity to double their trade exchanges. He added the two countries can raise the current $5 billion trade transaction to $10 billion.

Iran exports machinery, construction materials, sedans, buses, foodstuff, agricultural and petrochemical products, electrical products and home appliances to Turkmenistan, and imports natural gas, electricity, textiles and agricultural products from its northern neighbor.

Iran, Turkmenistan non-oil trade turnover stood at $1.112 billion in 2014. The Islamic Republic exported $933 billion worth of non-oil goods to Turkmenistan, meanwhile imported about $179 million worth of goods from Ashgabat in the same period, according to Iran’s Customs Administration.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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