DUBAI, February 12. /TASS/. The Iranian authorities, together with Russia, are seeking to completely exclude payments in dollars from mutual trade, deputy head of the joint Iranian-Russian Chamber of Commerce, Abdollah Mohajer Darabi said.
"The transition to settlements in national currencies in bilateral trade has been on the agenda of the governments of Iran and Russia for more than a year, but it has not yet been fully implemented. There is no doubt that both countries are seeking to exclude the dollar from trade relations," he said as quoted by the Iranian agency ILNA.
Darabi added that export volumes from Iran to Russia are estimated at $1.5-2 billion per year and can grow to $20-30 billion. The deputy head of the Chamber of Commerce also said that Russia "welcomes the purchase of Iranian goods" and underscored that Tehran hopes to reduce bureaucratic barriers for Iranian exporters on the Russian market by excluding dollar payments from bilateral trade and liberalizing it.
At a meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Moscow on December 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that trade turnover between the two countries had reached almost $5 billion, which is an increase of 20% year-on-year. As the head of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sergey Katyrin, noted, trade turnover between Russia and Iran in the coming years could increase to $40 billion.
In turn, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic in Moscow, Kazem Jalali, said that Iranian exports to Russia in 2023 increased by almost 30 %.
On December 25, 2023, the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) signed a full-scale free trade agreement with Iran. Prior to this, the preferential trade regime between the EAEU and Iran had been in effect since May 17, 2018. Following the signing, Putin announced that the new agreement implies a significant reduction in non-tariff barriers and a noticeable improvement in commercial cooperation between the business circles of Russia and Iran. Russia’s Economic Development Ministry explained that Tehran will provide tariff preferences for more than 95% of current Russian exports to the country, as well as establish a predictable and transparent trade regime. The Eurasian Economic Commission stated that the creation of a free trade zone with Iran will make it possible to increase the volume of its trade with the EAEU countries to $18-20 billion per year over the next 5-7 years.