TEHRAN, September 30. /TASS/. Russia is interested in bringing cooperation with Iran to a higher level, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said during talks with Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref.
"Relations between Russia and Iran go back centuries, and are based on the principles of friendship, good neighborliness, and mutual respect. Russia is genuinely interested in bringing our cooperation to a higher level, giving it more substance," Mishustin said. He recalled that relevant decisions were made by the leaders of the two countries to foster this increased cooperation.
"We welcome Iran's firm decision to further strengthen its strategic partnership with Russia and fully support this approach," Mishustin said. He emphasized that Russia prioritizes expanding trade and economic cooperation, diversifying bilateral trade, and enhancing its structure, and proposed continuing efforts to increase trade turnover.
"And, of course, we believe it is important to create the most favorable conditions for organizing a number of major investment projects in various fields," Mishustin said. He reiterated that in order to do this, the joint permanent Russian-Iranian commission on trade and economic cooperation, headed by Energy Minister Sergey Tsivilev, would play a big role.
"We consider logistics and transportation infrastructure as the most promising sphere. Russia and Iran have great transit potential both in the Caspian region and in Eurasia. We are actively developing international corridors: the International North-South Transport Corridor connects Russia’s Baltic and northern ports with Iranian ones in the Persian Gulf and in the Indian Ocean, it provides all Eurasian states with direct access to the rapidly growing markets of the Asia-Pacific region and Africa," Mishustin said.
Humanitarian cooperation
Moscow also attaches great importance to humanitarian cooperation, the prime minister added. "I know that Iran has recently seen a growing interest in Russian-language education, particularly higher education. Over the past four years, the number of Iranian students studying at Russian universities has tripled to 8,000, which we welcome. There is great potential in the field of our tourist exchanges; in particular, thanks to the decision on visa-free travel for tourist groups, the number of our citizens traveling to Iran increased by 52%, and today Iranian tourists have an opportunity to get an electronic visa to come visit Russia," Mishustin said.
The prime minister noted various projects that Moscow and Tehran have in the fields of infrastructure, transportation logistics, energy, agriculture, high-tech solutions, industry, cultural, and humanitarian issues, after which he suggested moving to discuss said subjects.