Iran, Kazakhstan foreign ministers stress expansion of mutual ties

Iran and Kazakhstan foreign ministers stressed expansion of bilateral ties and called for promotion of cooperation both at regional and international levels. During bilateral talks in Tehran on Saturday evening, Iran’s Ali-Akbar Salehi and his visiting Kazakh counterpart Yerzhan Kazykhanov agreed to boost the level of cooperation and activities in trade and economy given the capacities of the two countries. Referring to the 1.2-billion-dollar volume of trade between the two countries, Salehi said necessary mechanisms and tools should be developed by both governments to raise the level of economic and trade cooperation to the point the two nations deserve. He said the meeting of Iran-Kazakhstan joint economic committee was a good opportunity to achieve this goal especially through cooperation in such areas as energy, oil swaps, pipelines, transportation particularly the north-south railroad. Kazykhanov said his visit to Tehran aimed at speeding up the trend of mutual cooperation and hoped a new chapter opened in bilateral ties between the two nations. He stressed that Kazakhstan saw no obstacles in the way of activities of Iranian companies there and voiced his country’s interest to bolster relations with Iran in cultural, arts, scientific and academic areas as well as exchange of parliamentary delegations.