Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani made statements for mass media representatives after their meeting.
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani: “I welcome Mr. Pashinyan and his delegation. During the meeting, we reached satisfactory agreements in different directions. We have been witnessing friendly relations between our two countries since Armenia’s independence and we hope that we will witness the development of these relations during the new government’s activity. We had talks on bilateral, regional and global issues.
At the meeting with Mr. Prime Minister, we were satisfied with Armenia’s stance on unfair sanctions against Iran. Our two countries have the goal of abiding by our national interests and not allowing any third country to interfere with those activities and cooperation. Very good ties of cooperation have been established between our two countries: high-level political, cultural relations, cooperation in education, tourism and other spheres. We want cooperation in other areas to be high as well.
In terms of economic cooperation, there is great potential that should be used better. A large-scale project for gas is being implemented in the sphere of energy. We also paid attention to issues related to Meghri HPP operations.
Another issue in our focus is the North-South Highway Project. The Iranian side expressed readiness to participate in the program. We seek to facilitate the transportation system, particularly in the area of truck traffic.
We also touched upon agriculture. The Iranian side expressed readiness to cooperate in this sphere, develop slaughterhouse activities in Armenia and promote cooperation in cattle breeding.
The other topic of discussion was the IT sector. Taking into account the good cooperation between us, we express our readiness to develop these ties.
We next considered the possibility of trilateral cooperation in the field of energy between Iran, Armenia and Georgia, as well as in a four-party format – involving Russia.
As to cooperation in the field of gas supply, we expressed the Iranian side’s readiness to step up supplies. We are likewise prepared to launch tripartite cooperation to export gas to Georgia.
The other topic was linking the Persian Gulf with the Black Sea to Armenia. As a final word, I must note that the most important point is that there is mutual desire, potential and political will in both countries to develop relations.
We instructed the responsible parties to discuss all issues prior to the intergovernmental commission’s sitting.
Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan: “Thank you, Mr. President. First of all, I would like to thank you for your warm welcome. From the first minutes of the visit, we feel and know that we have come to a friendly country and hope that our Iranian counterparts have the feeling of hosting a representative delegation from a friendly country.
Our delegation features not only representatives from the executive branch, but also all political forces represented in the parliament, which evidences the importance attached by our country’s political forces to Armenian-Iranian relations.
The special character of our relationship is also highlighted by the presence of the active Armenian community in Iran and I want to once again thank the Iranian government for their kind attitude towards our compatriots. In short, the weather is very good in our relationships.
President Rouhani presented the range of issues we have discussed. I would like to add one or two points.
As a country chairing the EAEU, it is important for us that the EAEU-Iran free trade agreement be ratified as soon as possible by the respective parliaments. Apparently, it will come into effect during our presidency. This will open up new opportunities for our trade and business circles. And we should encourage our business communities to take advantage of those opportunities.
Our cooperation in the energy sector is extremely important. The President noted that Iran is willing to increase the volume of gas supplied to Armenia. Here, of course, it is important to be able to come to a general agreement about the price during further discussions and negotiations. This is a key issue in terms of economic attractiveness. And we hope that our representatives will conduct effective talks in this direction.
In general, we were able to make an important statement during the talks, namely that the bilateral relations should be viewed in a wider context, and we should implement projects of regional significance.
Armenia is ready to cooperate with Iran and become a transit country for Iranian gas. The establishment of an energy corridor is also of great importance both in terms of bilateral and regional dimensions and in broader terms. There is political will to resolve these issues, and we hope that the ongoing negotiations will be successful.
The discussions give us good grounds to state that our visit was successful and we can note that we must proceed from the logic of strengthening our friendly relations and their atmosphere.
Mr. Rouhani, let me once again thank you for the warm welcome and wish the representatives of our governments every success in implementing our agreements.
Thank you.”
***
Memoranda of understanding on cooperation between the two countries were signed in the presence of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President Hassan Rouhani.
In particular, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia and the Institute of Iranian Standards and Industrial Research.
The second memorandum was signed between the Armenian Ministry of Economic Development and Investments and the Supreme Council for Free Trade, Industrial and Special Economic Zones of Iran.
The documents were signed by Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.