Iran, Russia to sign monetary agreement for trade facilitation: minister

A senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Iran and Russia will sign a joint monetary agreement to facilitate mutual trade transactions, official IRNA news agency reported.

The agreement is aimed to facilitate exchange of Iran's rials and Russia's roubles, and it will also pave the way for boosting Tehran-Moscow economic relations, Iranian Minister of Communications Mahmoud Vaezi was quoted as saying.

Vaezi made the remarks after a meeting with the visiting Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov.

Vaezi said two sides discussed the ways to remove obstacles to bilateral cooperation during the meeting, adding that Russia will take steps towards decreasing its customs tariff in line with Iran's interests.

For his part, the Russian minister stressed the importance of increasing joint investments.

Cordial relations between Tehran and Moscow have prepared good grounds for expansion of economic cooperation, Manturov said.

Following the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey near Syrian border last month, Iran urged Russia for the ease of customs duty for its agricultural exports.

"Iran has now a golden opportunity to increase the export of its agricultural products to Russia to replace Turkey," head of Iran's Chamber of Commerce Mohsen Jalalpour said early this month.

On Nov. 26, the Russian government announced that it had tightened control over imports of farm products from Turkey as ties between the two countries plummeted after the warplane downing. Endit