President Rouhani is in Baku to participate in a trilateral meeting along with Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Russai’s Vladimir Putin. He attended a brief press conference on Sunday with Aliyev where he believed Iran and its northern border had been in a direct path to improved relations; “frequenting between two capitals have sought to help both nations of historical and cultural close ties improve relations. Now, Iran and Republic of Azerbaijan are in a place to boost relations between two nations; the ultimate objective however is bringing boom to free trade. We have been negotiating with all Eurasian countries to set a tariff,” he told the press. “I would rejoice to see that we finalize tariffs with Republic of Azerbaijan as well.”
“Banking transactions are critical to trade and both countries have signed agreements which will deregulate unnecessary paperwork to facilitate trade between Tehran and Baku; the Caspian Sea is a sea for peace and friendship; with legal regime of the sea, we have agreed upon some issues and joint commissions will address the implementation of these agreed-upon issues,” Rouhani emphasized.
“The environment of the sea is also critical to the heath of littoral nations; to address the pollution in the sea, we agreed that a secretariat be established in Baku to supervise over the deals, and Iran supports the secretariat’s activities; on Nagorno-Karabagh conflict, President Aliyev presented a report of the conditions on the ground. We believe peace and security should embrace the region and Iran would help both Armenia and Azerbaijan to come to a peaceful settlement,” President Rouhani told the press.
“On terrorism, there is unanimity that extremism has surpassed the region and violence is now an issue entailing strong cooperation of the countries, especially Iran and Azerbaijan,” Rouhani concluded.
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