Iran VP, Putin’s aide stress implementing bilateral deals

Iranian first vice president Mohammad Mokhber held a meeting with the visiting Aide to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Igor Levitin, in Tehran on Monday.

In the meeting, Igor Levitin expressed his happiness with the deepening and expansion of relations between the two countries and the recent exchanges of visits by the two countries delegations.

The Russian official stressed that the negotiations that took place during the visit of the head of Russia’s Central Bank to Iran to participate to take part in the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) Summit and also the trip of Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development to Russia have paved the way and were positive steps to remove banking barriers and develop transit lines.

Emphasizing the need to follow up on and put into operation the agreements between Tehran and Moscow as soon as possible, the Iranian first vice president added that, “The barriers to the construction of power plants, the implementation of the memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on joint energy cooperation and the development of oil fields should be removed through orders and follow-ups, and there has to be an acceleration in the implementation of joint projects and contracts.”

Mokhber also highlighted the necessity of developing cooperation between Iran and Russia in various fields, especially industrial, energy, trade and scientific fields, and said that, “In order to use all the transportation and transit potentials, we should try to develop our ports and put combined and multi-faceted transportation on our agenda.” He also said that “It is necessary to accelerate the establishment of a joint shipping company and also to develop cooperation in the aviation field.”

Referring to the importance of the North-South Corridor, the Iranian first vice president said,  “Russian companies should use the opportunity to invest in the coasts of Makran in south and southeast Iran and implementation of port infrastructure projects and logistics centers in the North-South Corridor, which is welcomed and pursued by some neighboring countries and other countries beyond the region.” “The speed of decision-making is of fundamental importance,” he added.

Putin’s special aide, for his part, expressed his gratitude and satisfaction with the progress of the implementation of plans and agreements between Tehran and Moscow and emphasized that the Russian government has made its utmost efforts to remove the obstacles and implement the agreements achieved between the two countries as soon as possible.

“The deepening and development of cooperation in the past two years shows the will and closeness of the two nations and governments, and we are determined that the transit, energy, medical and scientific MoUs and agreements will be fully finalized and become operational,” Levitin added.

The meeting was the sixth meeting of its kind between Mokhber and President Putin’s special aide over the past 9 months.

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