Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

The visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Italy is expected to trigger the expansion of bilateral relations between Italy and Iran.

"Hassan Rouhani's visit: opening a new chapter in close cooperation with Italy-both in economy and trade, and in combating extremism,” Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on January 27.

After the U.S. and the European countries removed sanctions on Iran, the country's President Hassan Rouhani started a four-day European tour on January 25, the first destination of which was Italy.

It has been more than a decade since an Iranian president has visited any European Union nation.

This visit showed that both Iran and Italy are interested in reviving bilateral relations and boosting trade ties following the implementation of a nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries.

The main achievement of this visit was signing of contracts worth up to €17 billion ($18.4 billion) covering various sectors, including health, transportation, agriculture and energy.

Iranian officials believe that the relations with Italy go beyond bilateral significance and can contribute to security and stability in the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa regions.

At the same time, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has stated that Rome will support Tehran's role in the settlement of tensions in the Middle East, including the humanitarian crisis in Syria

He made the remarks in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Rome on January 26, IRNA reported.

Further development of bilateral relations between the two countries is expected to be high on the agenda of a visit of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to Tehran.

“Italian PM Matteo Renzi will travel to Iran in the coming months to boost economic ties,” President Hassan Rouhani twitted on January 26.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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