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Iran, Russia should increase trade in national currency: Putin

Tuesday, 24 November 2015 4:09 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 24 November 2015 4:21 PM ]

This photo shows Russian President Vladimir Putin in a press conference with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani (not shown), following the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) summit in Tehran on November 23, 2015. ©AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Iran and Russia should boost the volume of their trade exchanges, making more use of the two countries’ national currencies for payments.

Speaking in a joint press conference following the 3rd summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Tehran on Monday, the Russian president said Tehran and Moscow must diversify their commodity trade while putting emphasis on the need to use national currencies for payments.

"We saw that a large set of documents, which is supposed to stimulate cooperation in various spheres, was signed just now. We shall pay necessary attention to diversification of commodity nomenclature, [and] make greater use of national currencies in bilateral payments," he noted.

Putin made the remarks in a ceremony on the sidelines of the GECF summit during which the two countries’ officials signed seven memorandums of understanding (MoU).

Rouhani, for his part, said the signing of the MoUs showed bilateral cooperation between Russia and Iran is moving towards further development.

The Iranian president noted that investments in Iranian and Russian public and private sectors could be “one of the important pillars” for developing these relations.

“There are also an abundance of projects in various economic fields, which can bear fruit in joint partnership,” Rouhani said, adding that there are also many projects in the fields of energy, oil, gas and electricity for mutual cooperation between the two countries.

The landmark GECF summit was attended by heads of state from nine member countries, including presidents of Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Iraq, Bolivia, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Turkmenistan as well as the Algerian prime minister.

At the end of the summit, the participants issued a declaration, underscoring the need to facilitate stronger cooperation over a series of industry issues, including the transfer of expertise and pricing mechanisms.

GECF is currently comprised of 18 member countries, including 12 main and 6 observer members.

Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela are the forum’s main members.

Kazakhstan, Iraq, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman and Peru are observer members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.

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