Tehran-Yerevan annual trade tops $1b: MP
By Ebrahim Beheshti & Reza Abesh Ahmadlou
Staff writers
The annual trade between Iran and Armenia has passed $1 billion, announced the vice president of the Iran-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group, while expressing hope that the figure would increase to $3 billion in two years.
Talking to Iran Daily, Ara Shaverdian added that with the increase in gas and electricity barter in recent months, the level of trade between the two countries has recently recorded the $1-billion trade, and in the meetings that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had with Armenian officials, both sides decided to increase their bilateral trade to $3 billion.
“We hope that with the memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed between Iran and Armenia in the past few months regarding the infrastructure development of trade, tourism, and the barter of electricity and gas, the process of increasing exchanges will speed up soon.”
Referring to Iran as a geopolitical player in the Middle East, Shaverdian said Iran is neighbor to 15 countries, including the Republic of Armenia, sharing a 45-kilometer border with the Caucasian country.
The Iran-Armenia border has great historical and strategic importance, as the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Iranian president have already mentioned in their statements, he noted.
Armenia as the northwestern neighbor of Iran is very important in terms of establishing a connection between Iran and the countries of the South Caucasus, the MP added.
Regarding the foreign policies of Iran, Shaverdian said Raisi has made all of his efforts to develop Tehran’s ties with regional countries, especially the bordering countries, in such a way that after a few months of the beginning of his job as president about two years ago, we witnessed the improvement of Iran’s cooperation with neighboring countries.
With the adoption of such policies by the government, Iran became a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS group. Iran has also become an observer member in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), as Armenia is the only EAEU state that shares a land border with Iran.
“We need to strengthen our infrastructure in the field of trade exchanges with other countries, and especially the International North-South Transit Corridor (INSTC) as well as the corridor from India to the Caucasus through Chabahar port, and from there to the Black Sea and the European Union states and Eurasian countries.”
The lawmaker expressed hope that the Eurasian countries, including Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, would cooperate with Iran so that the Islamic Republic becomes a permanent member of the EAEU in less than a year.
“In this regard, Iran has taken favorable measures as the second exclusive exhibition on Eurasia was recently held in Tehran which was organized by the Trade Promotion Organization and the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade,” Shaverdian explained.
Iran is after increasing the volume of exchanges with Eurasian countries, and in this regard, we are looking for using local currencies replacing the US dollar and the euro in trade, which is also on the agenda of the central banks of Iran and Armenia, he said.
Iran is one of the top 10 countries in the field of techno-engineering, Shaverdian noted, adding that the Iranian Parliament supports the export of Iranian technology and services to other countries, as it is trying to pave the ground for Iranian contractors to enter new markets, including Iraq, West African countries as well as the Caucasus region.