Before signing the joint statement, President Hassan Rouhani announced the realization of the goals of the first trilateral summit back in August 2016 in Baku and said "at the Baku Summit, in addition to regional macro-issues, we highlighted three special economic issues, including the transportation sector and the North-South Corridor, energy, electricity and oil and gas sectors, as well as the area of structural change for the development of economic cooperation. I am pleased to announce today that we have taken good steps in all three areas.”
Rouhani went on to add, “in the field of transportation and the North-South Corridor, the connection of the Bandar Abbas rail to Helsinki through Tehran, Rasht, Astara, Baku, and then Moscow and St. Petersburg to Europe is on a fast track of development.”
The president noted the steps taken by the three countries in the field of energy cooperation, saying “major Russian oil companies are in talks with the Iranian side to invest in our oil projects, which will be very effective.”
"We are in talks with Azerbaijani oil and gas companies about cooperation in the field of exploration and exploitation in the Caspian Sea,” he said.
The president also noted that in the area of structural change in the development of economic cooperation, Iran will soon develop relations with the Eurasian Union and coordinate standards between the three countries and establish a green corridor of customs, along with the development of banking cooperation and exchanges with the national currency and connecting banking networks.
President Rouhani further expressed hope that any trilateral meeting would be a new step for further cooperation and interactions between Tehran, Moscow and Baku.
The next trilateral summit between the three countries will be held in Moscow next year.
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