Iran and Russia to add an economic dimension to their partnership

As Iran and Russia have been intensifying their cooperation and coordination in the political and security spheres in Syria and elsewhere, it now seems that the two sides are eager to add a new aspect to their partnership, namely an upgraded level of economic cooperation.

کد خبر: ۷۸۰۶۵۰

تاریخ: ۱۶ اسفند ۱۳۹۶ - ۱۷:۰۸

Tabnak – As Iran and Russia have been intensifying their cooperation and coordination in the political and security spheres in Syria and elsewhere, it now seems that the two sides are eager to add a new aspect to their partnership, namely an upgraded level of economic cooperation.

In this vein, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak says Moscow and Tehran have discussed deliveries of Sukhoi Superjet 100 passenger planes to Iran amid uncertainties about deals with Boeing and Airbus.

"We discussed the possibility of Sukhoi Superjet 100 purchase by our Iranian partners and outlined a plan of how this can be put into practice," Russian media quoted him as saying in Moscow Tuesday.

He made the remarks after a joint commission meeting of the two countries’ officials, stating that the two sides also agreed on supplies of Russian-made vehicles, such as KAMAZ and UAZ buses and trucks, to Iran.

"Today we discussed the deliveries of rail carriages. We have already delivered 1,200 of them and plan to deliver about 3,000 in 2018," the Rossiya-24 TV channel quoted him as saying.

Elsewhere, Novak also said that Russian oil companies could sign contracts with Iran by March 21 that would allow them to work on Iranian oilfields. According to him, Iran is ready to supply crude oil to Russia but that would depend on future agreements with the buyers of the oil, Reuters reported.

In September 2017, Russian energy companies Zarubezhneft, Gazprom Neft and Lukoil submitted plans to the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to develop oil fields in Iran.

Zarubezhneft representatives outlined their plans to increase the recovery rate of oil from the Aban and West Paydar fields, Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum announced at the time. A memorandum of understanding for Zarubezhneft’s study of the two fields which are shared with Iraq was signed on July 22, 2016.

The Russian company signed another MoU with the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) in July in 2017 to conduct technical studies on the Shadegan and Rag Sefid fields.

On the other hand, Tehran and Moscow were also working to sign free trade documents between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union countries possibly in May, Novak said.

"The move to enter into a temporary agreement making for a free trade zone to be set up between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union, which is currently at an advanced stage, will obviously trigger further development of our bilateral trade and expansion of investment cooperation," he said.

Talks on establishing a free trade zone between Iran and the group which includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan began in 2015.

Novak said Russia and Iran also need to step up work to increase their volume of trade in national currencies. According to the Russian minister, bilateral trade in 2017 stood at $1.7 billion, but “there are still unresolved issues”.