(RTTNews) – Turkey seeks to double bilateral trade with neighboring Iran to $30 billion by 2015, a move aimed at strengthening ties with the Islamic Republic despite the new round of Western sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear defiance.
“Iran and Turkey’s relations saw a 70 percent rise in 2011 and I hope that new steps will be taken within the framework of the Joint Commission to help increase the trade volume to $30 billion in 2015,” Turkey’s Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar told a joint economic meeting held in capital Ankara on Thursday.
To achieve the goal, the two countries at a two-day Joint Economic Cooperation Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding covering areas such as transportation, energy and industry, Turkish media reported.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who led the Iranian delegation at the Commission meeting, said to achieve the $30 billion goal, Iran and Turkey needed to facilitate financial affairs and transactions and implement agreements reached at the Joint Commission.
A NATO ally, Turkey is raising the trade target at a time when the United States ratcheted up pressure on Iran with fresh round of sanctions, and the European Union (EU) expected to support an oil embargo and a freeze on the assets of Iran’s central bank.
Turkey has pledged not to comply with the new U.S. sanctions targeting the Iranian oil industry and its financial institutions, saying Ankara is only bound by U.N. sanctions.
via Turkey, Iran Agree To Raise Bilateral Trade To $30 Billion.
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