Azerbaijan president to visit Iran for key talks on ties

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will make an official visit to Iran seeking to strengthen ties with the Islamic republic in diverse areas, local media reported on Monday.

The Azerbaijani ambassador to Tehran, Bunyad Hasanov, made the announcement here in Tehran.

"Azerbaijan is keen to expand economic and trade cooperation with Iran," he was quoted as saying.

The two countries have seen bilateral ties growing particularly over the past few years after President Hassan Rouhani took the office in 2013.

The bilateral trade in 2016 showed a 45 percent rise, reaching 320 million U.S. dollars.

In August last year, Rouhani and Aliyev met in Baku and urged to bolster cooperation in commerce, industry, energy and transportation.

The two sides signed six bilateral documents, including an intergovernmental protocol of intent on cooperation on the North-South international transport corridor project.

"The crucial goal of Iran and Azerbaijan is to develop a free trade," Rouhani said, adding that "Iran is negotiating with the Eurasian Economic Union on custom tariffs, and is interested in reaching similar agreements with Azerbaijan in this regard as well."

He underlined cooperation in the banking sector, saying that "we try to enhance banking ties to a level which leads to the development of mutual trade and economic relations in all fields."

The two countries were developing cooperation in investment, industry, technology, car manufacturing and pharmaceutical fields, he added. Endit