Putin calls on Azerbaijan, Iran to establish active information exchange on terrorists

BAKU, August 8. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited his counterparts from Azerbaijan and Iran to establish more active information exchange on the activities of terrorist organizations.

"We think it necessary to establish more active information exchange on the activities of international terrorist organizations. It is necessary for more efficient efforts to stop transit of gunmen, weapons and drugs via the territories of our countries," Putin said at a summit of the leaders of the three countries in Azerbaijan’s Baku.

Among the challenges facing the countries, the Russian leader cited the ongoing global crisis, tensions on the international arena, including at the borders of Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan. "Our commitment to efforts towards searching for ways to solve these problems stipulates the necessity to build closer cooperation," he said.

Touching on other areas of cooperation, Putin pointed to the necessity to develop dialogue of the Caspian Sea issues, to finalize the work on a convention on the Caspian Sea’s legal status. He expressed confidence that the signing of this convention is in the interests of all the five Caspian littoral states.

"Cooperation in the sphere of transport infrastructure looks promising. I mean plans to establish a western line of the international North-South railway corridor. In the energy sector, top priority projects include the development of oil and gas field, first of all in the Caspian region," the Russian leader said.

Apart from that, according to Putin, the sides are ready to discuss mutually beneficial ways of the joint use of the pipeline infrastructure to transport extracted raw materials.

"I am confident that cooperation between the three neighboring countries - Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran - will have a pragmatic and mutually beneficial character and will meet the basic interests of our peoples," he said.