Nigeria's Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zubairu Dada, who is visiting Tehran at the head of a Nigerian delegation, met with the Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagheri Ghalibaf on Wednesday at the parliament's compound.
At the start of the meeting, Ghalibaf said that Iran's 13th administration seeks to expand ties with neighboring and Muslim countries as a priority and said that "Although we have faced many difficulties for many years due to the US sanctions and oppressive and unilateral decisions, we seriously seek good relations with Islamic countries and a deep political, economic and cultural relationship, and undoubtedly Nigeria as the most populous and important country, especially in the West African region, is a priority for Islamic Republic of Iran's relations."
The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament stated that Iran has very good capacities in the fields of science, technology and engineering, infrastructure, oil and gas industry, metal industries, knowledge-based companies and health and education fields, adding, "I hope these capacities can be used well and relations between the two countries would develop in the economic field."
He also called for bolstering cultural ties in parallel with the diplomatic and economic ties.
The Nigerian foreign minister, for his part, stressed the need to strengthen bilateral relations with Iran, and said that through bolstering cultural relations, the economic ties will follow to grow.
Although there are many opportunities between Iran and Nigeria from an economic and trade perspective, the use of those capacities requires the building of mutual trust, which is the main purpose of the Tehran visit, Zubairu Dada added.
Normal political relations between the two countries should be used to strengthen trade and economic relations, he added.
He assured the Iranian side to maintain parliamentary ties even under the tough sanctions.
KI/5509727
Your Comment