Iranian speaker urges expansion of ties with Azerbaijan
By Ofeliya Afandiyeva
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has said that Baku and Tehran must intensify efforts to expand bilateral cooperation, Iranian Mehr news agency reported.
Larijani made the remarks while meeting Azerbaijani Ambassador Bunyad Huseynov.
"Presently, there are opportunities to reinforce economic, political, cultural and social cooperation as well as the relations between Iran and Azerbaijan. Therefore, the authorities of both countries must intensify their efforts to use this potential," Larijani said.
The speaker said that the Iranian parliament does not see any obstacles in expanding parliamentary cooperation with Azerbaijan. He emphasized that bilateral relations must be developed in all fields. In particular, in his opinion, there is a need for the development of economic and industrial relations between the two sides, especially in the fields of agriculture and transport.
In turn, the Ambassador Huseynov said that “Baku has always supported the development of cooperation and exchanges between two countries."
The Azerbaijani diplomat stressed his satisfaction with the expansion of cooperation between two countries in such areas as transport, railways, economic cooperation, urban planning, agriculture, customs and socio-cultural cooperation, as well as health tourism. He also expressed hope that thanks to the taken measures, collaboration between two countries in the sphere of tourism sector will further be strengthened, Mehr news agency reported.
It should be noted that the Azerbaijani and Iranian presidents met in the framework of the 18th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in Baku on October 25-26, 2019, where they praised bilateral ties.
In 2018, the turnover between Baku and Tehran increased by over 70 percent and in the first nine months of 2019, this figure grew by a further 45 percent. The two countries are also cooperating in the sphere of transportation (North-South transport route), automobile, construction industry, oil and gas industry.
Baku-Tehran ties started improving since 2013-2014 with the advent of the Hassan Rouhani administration that put efforts in making Azerbaijani-Iranian ties grow.