Japan keen on developing relations with Iran

Japan is ready to develop relations with Iran in various fields including economy, Japanese Ambassador to Tehran Kinichi Komano said on Saturday. He made the remarks in a meeting with Iranian Vice-President for Executive Affairs Hamid Baghaei. Kinichi noted that although Iran is under economic sanctions, it has made good progress in various fields including energy and economy. “Iran and Japan enjoy historical common grounds and have good potentials for expansion of cultural relations,” the ambassador added. Iranian Vice-President for Executive Affairs, for his part, pointing to western efforts for additional sanctions on Iran, called for sanctions against the interests of the West. Referring to the similarities between Iranian and Japanese culture and history, Iranian official underlined that Tokyo and Tehran have lots of common interests. Baghaei called for development of economic and cultural relations between Japan and Iran including in free trade zones. Iran-Japan relations were formally established in 1926. Throughout history, the two countries have maintained friendly and strongly strategic partnership. Iran and Japan also cooperate on regional foreign policy issues in the Middle East, such as the reconstruction of Afghanistan and in the meantime, since 2004, Japan has been working on developing Iran's largest on-shore oil field. Iran is one of Japan's largest oil suppliers along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Japan exporting automobiles and electrical products and importing petroleum and petrochemical products. As of 2010, Japan cooperates with Iran on several major projects; the annual trade of the two states exceeds dlrs 11 billion.