French FM’s visit to Tehran
By Kamila Aliyeva
Tehran has today hosted a meeting of Iran-France Joint Economic
Commission with presence of French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc
Ayrault and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.
The session was the first meeting of the joint commission after 17
years, aimed at boosting mutual economic, political and cultural
ties, Trend’s correspondent reported from the event.
During the session Ayrault said that French administration is
trying to facilitate issuing visas for Iranians.
“We have announced this to our embassy in Tehran and French embassy
is working on this,” he said.
Ayrault further underlined his country's efforts to further develop trade and economic relations with Iran through involving more French banks in interactions with Tehran.
"France has been active in guaranteeing exports to Iran and the French banks have played a role in this regard which shows France's confidence in trade with Iran and we will try to involve more banks," Ayrault said.
Zarif, in turn, underlined that the two countries have tripled the value of their trade exchanges in the first eleven months of 2016.
"The value of trade exchanges between Iran and France has exceeded $1.7 billion," Fars agency reported citing Zarif as saying.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran as a reliable partner is ready for sustainable economic cooperation on the basis of mutual interests with the European countries, specially France," Zarif added.
Iranian and French companies signed five cooperation documents
at the end of the two countries’ joint economic commission
session.
The documents envisage cooperation for development of Mashhad
international airport, construction of a bioethanol plant in the
western city of Kermanshah, and holding pilot training courses for
Iran and regional countries as well as cooperation in fishery
industry and caviar production.
Heading a high-ranking 60-member political-economic delegation,
Ayrault arrived in Tehran on January 30.
During his two-day visit, Ayrault is scheduled to meet with Iran’s
President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and
Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali
Shamkhani.
The commercial ties between Iran and France have been rising considerably since the nuclear deal went into force in January 2016.
The trade turnover between Iran and France amounted to € 1.5 billion over the past 10 months.
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