Iranian, Azeri FMs explore ways of expanding friendly ties
Tehran (ISNA) – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhoun Bayramov on the sidelines of the meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization’s top diplomats in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent.
In the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian and Bayramov explored ways of expanding friendly ties between Tehran and Baku.
The Iranian foreign minister pointed to the place of the Republic of Azerbaijan as a neighbor of Iran and priority of neighborliness in the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy, saying the developments in the Southern Caucasus region, the liberation of Azeri territories and the related ceasefire have opened a new chapter and created new opportunities for stability and convergence in the region.
Amir-Abdollahian underlined that the preservation of the territorial integrity of countries is important to Iran and that Tehran has always defended and will always defend the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
He also emphasized the huge potential for the expansion of bilateral ties between Iran and Azerbaijan, especially in trade and economic fields.
Amir-Abdollahian expressed hope that trade ties between the two sides will be boosted after they have built a tangible roadmap and shown the required will to this end.
He added that peace and stability in the Caucasus will create better opportunities for strengthening the north-south corridor and for increased trade in the region.
Amir-Abdollahian added that Iran is interested in and ready for participating in the projects of Azerbaijan including in the liberated areas, using its technical and engineering capacities.
The Azeri foreign minister also said in the meeting that friendly relations between Tehran and Baku are of high importance and meetings for this purpose, have played an effective role. Therefore, it is necessary to speed up the meetings in 2023.
He noted that the three-way transportation between Iran, Russia and the Republic of Azerbaijan would be a good framework for expanding regional cooperation. In addition to that, political consultations between the two foreign ministries are of effective help to expand relations as much as possible.
The Iranian and Azeri foreign ministers then underlined the importance of meetings between high-ranking officials of the two countries. They further agreed to continue holding active meetings in 2023. They said mutual visits, in particular, by top diplomats of Iran and Azerbaijan and the heads of the joint economic cooperation commission of the two countries will also continue in the near future.
Meanwhile, Amirabdollahian and Bayramov held talks about regional developments as well as using the opportunity and capacity of the 3+3 framework to resolve regional issues by countries of the region and to prevent foreign players from interfering in those issues.
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@Isna_Int
source: en.isna.ir
