Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan can play the role of a corridor between Iran and Russia, Deputy Governor General of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province Saeed Shabestari said on November 12.

He told Trend Agency that the trade turnover between Iran and Azerbaijan has reached$500 million adding it sometimes hits $680 million

“Some 20 percent of Azerbaijani-Iranian trade turnover accounts for the East Azerbaijan province,” he noted.

Touching upon Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Azerbaijan, Shabestari noted this visit will open a new page in the political and economic relations between the two countries.

“We will try to benefit from this to ensure the development of relations and boosting of trade turnover between Iran and Russia,” Shabestari said.

He went on adding that favorable conditions have been created in Iran's East Azerbaijan province for Azerbaijani investments and expressed interest in expanding cooperation with Azerbaijan.

Recently, the relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, two neighboring countries with a long history of bilateral ties and cooperation, have risen to a higher level.

Tehran has in recent years focused seriously on development of ties with neighboring countries, including Azerbaijan which enjoys various commonalties with Iran in religious, historical and cultural fields.

Iran and Azerbaijan have had diplomatic relations since 1918. Iran recognized Azerbaijan's independence in 1991, and diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Iran stood at $144.045 million in January-September 2014, according to the State Customs Committee (SCC) of Azerbaijan.

In the past nine months, goods worth $115.6 million were imported to Azerbaijan, and the goods exported by the country amounted to $28.45 million.

The trade turnover of East Azerbaijan province amounted to $1.2 billion in 2013. Around $1 billion of this amount fell to non-oil products, while $200 million fell to petrochemical products.