At the end of the third summit of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), Iran’s Hassan Rouhani met and talked with the Rusian President Vladimir Putin before attending a press conference during which the two sides expressed their positions with regard to the regional issues.
Rouhani deemed the nuclear issue as one of the common grounds between the two countries adding “for many years, Iran and Russia have had good relations in the field of nuclear energy and today these relations will develop.”
“We have also decided to expand the already-existing cooperation on regional issues,” Rouhani noted.
The Iranian President stressed that terrorism is a threat to the region and the world; “some countries merely talk about terrorism in words while Iran and Russia have shown their serious determination to fight against terrorism in practice proving that actions speak louder than words,” he underlined.
“The available opportunities will certainly provide the basis for further collaboration in line with taking more serious steps to benefit the two nations as well as the region,” maintained Rouhani.
At the end of his remarks, President Rouhani expressed gratitude to Vladimir Putin and his accompanying delegation for travelling to Iran.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his part, said the summit of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) made it possible to discuss gas issues with the participating countries as well as to negotiate various topics with Iranians.
“Good talks were conducted with ministers, heads of key organizations and institutes after the discussions with Iran’s Leader,” he added.
Referring to the talks with senior Iranian officials, the Russian president said “various aspects of bilateral relations were discussed at the meetings including economy as well as the fight against terrorism.”
He reiterated that some documents were signed between the two countries which can lead to further development of existing relations.
Putin stressed the intentions to speed up the development of economic cooperation between Russia and Iran asserting “we plan to make a list of goods required by both sides and further to use national currencies in payments between the two countries."
Putin noted the possibility of creating a trade area between the two sides as yet another issue raised at the meeting with Iran’s Rouhani and said the same topic will go through further investigation in the future.
“We discussed Russia’s plan to allocate a credit line worth five billion dollars to Iran as well,” maintained Putin adding “25 priority projects in various fields particularly in energy, construction, manufacturing of marine terminals as well as communications will be carried out by Iran and Russia.”
The Russian president stressed that bilateral cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy will continue; “currently, the construction of Bushehr nuclear power plant has been accomplished and we intend to begin phases two and three of the project,” he underlined.
“We are planning to design a road map for the Iranian nuclear issue and will help with the conversion of enriched uranium and the production of stable isotopes,” reiterated Putin.
Putin further emphasized the two countries' cooperation in the fight against terrorism and said “relations between the two countries will be strengthened in the international arena.”
Referring to the Syrian crisis, the official stated “Iran and Russia will pursue cooperation for finding a political solution to the Syrian issue.”
“President Rouhani made a good offer and I feel obliged to congratulate Iran for very successful organization of the third GECF summit,” said Vladimir Putin announcing that Russia intends to increase gas production to a great degree by the year 2035.
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