Iran, Kazakhstan sign agreements to boost ties

Iran and Kazakhstan signed 11 agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) here on Monday in a bid to boost cooperation in diverse areas, Tasnim news agency reported.

The documents were signed by the two countries' senior officials with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his visiting Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in attendance.

Based on the agreements, Tehran and Astana will cooperate in a variety of fields, ranging from technology, road and rail transport, commerce and environmental protection to prisoner exchanges, the report said.

On Monday, Rouhani voiced Iran's determination to enhance its ties with Kazakhstan. and urged efforts to facilitate free trade with Kazakhstan and other Eurasian countries.

He stressed the need for closer trade cooperation and banking relations between Tehran and Astana, and called for developing transportation and linking the two countries' railroads together.

Agriculture, mining industry, healthcare and medicine, energy, academic projects, environment, transportation and shipping industry can be other areas of cooperation, Rouhani said.

Rouhani further urged enhanced cooperation between the two sides over regional issues.

He said that extremism, sectarian division and terrorism are the major threats to the Muslim world and called for the adoption of political approaches to establish stability in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria and to put an end to the Saudi war in Yemen, Press TV reported.

For his part, the Kazakh president said Iran can play in the settlement of disputes among Muslim countries and in the fight against terrorism.

Kazakhstan supports Iran's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Nazarbayev said.

Heading a high-ranking economic and political delegation, Nazarbayev arrived in the Iranian capital on Monday for talks on bilateral ties as well as international issues with Iran.