Azerbaijan intent on expanding economic ties with Iran: Deputy PM
Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev says his country is intent on expanding trade and economic ties with Iran despite political rifts caused by an attack in late January on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran.
Shahin Mustafayev, who co-chairs an intergovernmental economic commission between Iran and Azerbaijan, said on Monday that Baku seeks to complete joint border projects with Iran to help boost trade between the two countries.
Mustafayev made the remarks in a meeting held in the Iranian border city of Astara with Iranian transportation minister and co-chair of Iran-Azerbaijan joint economic commission Mehrdad Bazrpash.
“Azerbijan believes in expanding continued and stable cooperation with Iran,” he said, adding that some 2,452 Iranian companies are currently operating in Azerbaijan as a result of growing economic ties between the two countries.
Before the meeting, Mustafayev and Bazrpash toured an unfinished bridge on the Astarachay river on the border between Iran and Azerbaijan. The project seeks to facilitate the movement of cargo trucks between the two countries.
Senior government officials from the two sides, including regional governors, were present in the Monday meeting in Astara.
The meeting comes some five months after Baku decided to evacuate its embassy in Tehran following an attack on the mission which Tehran blamed on personal motives of the attacker.
Iranian and Azerbaijani officials sought to repair their ties during a recent summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku.
The two countries have stakes in a major international transport corridor project that passes through their territories.
Tehran and Baku have also expanded their energy cooperation in recent years under a gas swap arrangement that also involves Turkmenistan.
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