Tehran-Moscow gas cooperation planned: Ambassador
Iran-Russia cooperation in the gas sector has been planned and could come to fruition, said Iran’s ambassador to Moscow, in remarks carried by Shana News Agency on Tuesday.
Kazem Jalali said Iran could turn Iran into a gas hub in partnership with Russia thanks to the two countries’ top global positions in terms of gas reserves and production.
Jalali said the in the past there were doubts that Tehran and Moscow could ever wort together in the economic fields but this turned out to be wrong in recent years.
“When I was departing for Moscow to begin my diplomatic mission, some people told me that Iran and Russia could never cooperate in the economic areas as energy is the pillar of their economy and the two states are rivals. To me, this is a wrong notion as economic cooperation is not limited to the energy sector and the two countries can cooperate in many fields,” he said.
The theory proved wrong in practice, underlined the ambassador, referring to the current cooperation between Iran and Russia in various sectors.
“If the two countries had not faced the five barriers of marketing, transit, logistics, monetary and banking, and customs problems, bilateral relations would have expanded in many areas.”
As per the Economy Ministry, Russia made the highest investments in Iran in 2023, said the envoy, adding that the investments had been mainly attracted by the oil
industry.