Mokhber made the comment on Wednesday afternoon as he hosted Deputy Russian Prime Minister Alexander Novak, hours after Iran’s Road Minister and Russia’s transport minister signed the agreement to build the Rasht-Astara railway. That’s a project in northern Iran, which is key to the transit of cargo via INSTC.
Iran’s first vice-president called the $1.6-billion deal an important step in ties between the Islamic Republic and Russia, saying that the two sides should now seriously work to implement the agreement.
The Russian official on his part said that the North-South Transport Corridor will create a strategic route for Iran, Russia and all regional countries.
During their talks in Tehran, Mokhber and Novak discussed Iran-Russia economic cooperation in other fields as well, including oil, gas, industry and agriculture, among other things.
The Iranian official said that the two countries should accelerate ditching the dollar in their trade transactions in a bid to further boost their economic cooperation.
Iran, Russia sign joint statement on mutual cooperation
On the sidelines of the meeting, the Russian deputy prime minister and Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji signed a joint statement on cooperation between the two countries. Novak and Owji are the chairmen of Iran-Russia Joint Economic and Trade Cooperation Commission.
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