Raisi was speaking at Mehrabad Airport pavilion right before leaving to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.
He will have meetings with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and some other leaders participating in the summit.
This visit is aimed at strengthening neighborhood policy and integration and deepening multilateralism, the President said, adding that Iran has been successful in building mutual political confidence in the first stage of its new foreign policy approach.
In the second stage, he added, Iran is seeking to have a bigger role and active presence in the region to take advantage of the infrastructure in Central Asia and neighboring countries as well as the economic progress in the region to protect Iran’s interests.
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