In an interview with IRNA on Tuesday, China and Eurasia expert Mehdi Khorsand said that Iran lost many opportunities in Eurasia, and the Central Asian countries in particular, because the region was overlooked for the last two decades, but the course has been reversed since President Raisi took office in August 2021.
Iran’s diplomacy apparatus was moved away from economic diplomacy in the past years leading the cooperation atmosphere to be impacted by misunderstandings, so the trade between Iran and the Central Asian countries decreased year by year, according to Khorsand.
The expert added that President Raisi adopted “neighbors first” as a principle in foreign policy the results of which can be discerned now.
Iran’s trade volume with neighboring countries has increased so much that the trade deficit with those countries is changing course, Khorsand said, adding that this along with the activation of transit corridors are among previously overlooked capacities that the Raisi administration realized.
Iran has recently been experiencing a host of high-profile visits by leaders and high-profile delegations from neighboring countries – a development that is described by the experts to be a response to the Raisi administration’s indication of goodwill.
He singled out Kazakhstan as a country that has capacities for Iran to expand ties with, especially in fields such as energy and mining, while Iran had high capacities in technology, knowledge-based companies, and startup companies to offer.
Kazakhstan welcomes Iranian companies to participate in the country, said Khorsand who has met with some Kazakh delegations, adding that they had prepared economic plans for Iran’s partnership.
He also highlighted Iran’s geopolitical weight as a potential that can link landlocked Central Asian countries to the Persian Gulf, praising the activation of the Kazakhstan-Iran-Turkey corridor.
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