Iranian Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian and Advisor to Armenian Prime Minister Artashes Toumanian held a meeting in Tehran on Monday to stress the necessity of expanding cooperation between the two countries in the field of energy.
During the meeting, Mehrabian described the bilateral ties between Tehran and Yerevan as " privileged" and said that those ties need to further expand.
The Iranian energy minister also stressed the need to prepare the condition for the meeting between the president of Iran and the prime minister of Armenia.
He further pointed to the vast capabilities of Iranian companies active in the field of technical and engineering services and the scope of activities of these companies around the world, as well as construction and repair of power plants, construction of hydropower plants and other areas, and suggested bilateral meetings to introduce capabilities and cooperation capacities of the two countries with the participation of the economic agents from both sides.
Both sides in the meeting also stressed the need to coordinate the holding of the 17th Iran-Armenia Cooperation Summit hosted by the Armenian side on May 10 and 13, and described the summit as important for the development of relations between the two countries in the area of energy.
The advisor to the prime minister of Armenia, for his part, mentioned the important issues of bilateral cooperation, and discussed constructive decisions for the development of trade and economic cooperation, as well as cooperation in the field of energy with the Iranian chief of the joint cooperation commission.
Toumanian also met Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji at Iran’s Oil Ministry compound on Monday.
Tehran and Yerevan signed a 20-year gas and electricity purification agreement in 2004, according to which Iran's exported gas will be consumed by power plants in Armenia, and in return, Iran will import electricity from Armenia. Armenia has been importing gas from Iran since the middle of the year 2009.
KI/IRN84698917