Iran, Turkey to boost cooperation on transportation

Iranian and Turkish officials in a meeting in Ankara explored avenues to further develop mutual cooperation between the two countries in the transit and transportation sector. During the meeting in Ankara on Saturday, Iran's Ambassador to Turkey Bahman Hosseinpour and Binali Yildirim, the Turkish minister of transportation and communication, urged continued efforts to expand ties specially in the field of transportation and communication, as a main contributor to the development of all-out ties between the two neighboring countries. They also agreed on holding an Iran-Turkey joint transportation commission meeting in the near future. The two officials also stressed the necessity for stronger relations and pursuing the planned increase of mutual trade to $30bln by 2015. In January 2011, Iranian and Turkish investors established and inaugurated the first international transportation company named 'Abrisham' in Iran's Northwestern province of East Azarbaijan. Iran and Turkey have in recent years increased their cooperation in all the various fields of economy, security, trade, education, energy and culture. The two sides have exchanged several politico-economic delegations during the last few months. Turkish President Abdullah Gul in a meeting with Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani earlier in February underlined the need for the removal of obstacles to the further expansion of bilateral economic ties with Iran in a bid to boost trade cooperation between the two countries. "The level of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries is not appropriate for the age-old ties of the two nations and we should remove the obstacles to the development of mutual cooperation between Iran and Turkey," Gul said at the time.