Brazil always ‘a friend in need’ for Iran

Mohammad Javad Zarif and Armando Monteiro, Brazilian Minister of Development, Industry and Trade met on Monday evening to discuss ways to improve bilateral trade and other relations. Mr. Monteiro heads an economic delegation including Brazilian business moguls to Tehran, which arrived Monday morning in Tehran.

Zarif recalled the visit by Iran’s minister of economic affairs to Brazil and deemed it as fruitful; “a positive report by the minister of economic affairs was presented to the cabinet meeting; we consider the present return visit by Brazilian delegation as a path to identify new potentials in bilateral relations and thus important,” he added.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has ample opportunities to open new markets to Brazilians to cooperate on; in collaboration with the country, a 350-million people pristine markets of the Central Asia would be a great opportunities for Brazil’s fast-growing economy; the country is also important for its place in the Latin America and the BRICS countries, and had been a priority in foreign policy,” Zarif told Monteiro. “With a gradualist approach in creating new economic capacities, we are now walking in the path for searching new roadmaps to promote our common points of interests,” he said, “where companies, banks, and financial firms of both countries will play a great role.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran and Brazil have diverse fields to cooperate on which include biotechnology, energy and oil, and other technologies; banks and financial sectors are crucial in giving dynamism to current state of the bilateral ties,” Zarif asserted. “We welcome tackling barriers in the way of cooperation in banking sector through negotiations,” he proposed.

Mr. Monteiro for his part praised Iran as cradle to great Persian civilization, which had been always of critical importance for Brazil; “we welcome expanding ties with Iran; meeting of Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff and President Rouhani on the sidelines of UN General Assembly in last September helped improve bilateral ties further,” he briefly stated.

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