Iran, Turkey, Saudi welcome joint investment: Amir-Abdollahian

Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey welcome a summit on improving economic and commercial relations of cooperation and joint investment, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says.

The top Iranian diplomat made the remarks while addressing a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Tehran on Sunday.

Amir-Abdollahian said he had a constructive conversation with Fidan about the implementation of a comprehensive plan for improving bilateral cooperation.

The plan was agreed upon by President Ebrahim Raeisi of Iran and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Tehran last July. 

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The Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers agreed that it was imperative for the two neighboring countries to restore an existing mechanism to remove obstacles in the way of enhanced cooperation.

Amir-Abdollahian said Tehran and Ankara seek to increase annual trade volume to 30 billion euros. He emphasized that transportation and transit routes among the regional countries, including Iran and Turkey, "are not a factor of competition, but rather complement bilateral cooperation."

Pointing to the importance of increasing consular cooperation between Iran and Turkey, the top Iranian diplomat said a meeting of a joint committee on the transfer of convicts would convene in Ankara after five years.

Amir-Abdollahian noted that Tehran and Ankara agreed to boost cooperation in various sectors, including science and technology, industry, energy, exchange of university professors and students, tourism and sports.

Both sides have consensus that the development of free trade zones along with the border and the connection to Eurasia would increase commercial exchanges, he said.

The top Iranian and Turkish diplomats also discussed the water shortage problems and agreed that a joint technical committee would travel to Tehran in the near future to hold new discussions in this regard.

Referring to the "very good" talks with his Turkish counterpart about the latest regional developments, Amir-Abdollahian said the two sides stressed the importance of taking further measures to prevent Islamophobia and sacrilegious acts against holy books, including Qur'an.

"We emphasized that the issue of Palestine is a priority for Muslim countries and we share a view that the presence of the Zionist regime in the region has brought nothing but insecurity and instability to the regional countries," the Iranian foreign minister said.

He said Iran and Turkey welcome negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan about the dispute over the Caucasus region and "will not tolerate any geopolitical change in the region and the closure of the existing transit routes."

Tehran and Ankara believe diplomacy is the sole solution to issues of concern between Turkey and Syria such as terrorism and refugees, the Iranian minister said.

"Iran will continue its efforts to allay concerns of Turkey and maintain Syria's territorial integrity via the capacity of its friendly relations with Turkey and Syria and within the framework of a quadrilateral format among Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria."

Turkey will host President Raeisi soon: Fidan

The Turkish foreign minister said President Raeisi plans to travel to Ankara within the next days on an official visit to attend the eighth meeting of High Council of Iran-Turkey Strategic Relations.

Iran and Turkey are two countries with dominant roles in the region and are duty-bound to promote regional peace and stability, Fidan said.

He hailed the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as two major players in the region and said positive Tehran-Riyadh relations certainly impact regional issues.

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