Iranian President Hassan Rouhani left Tehran for Moscow on Monday for a two-day official visit in Russia, accompanied by the ministers of Foreign Affairs, Industry, Mines and Trade, Petroleum, Communications, and the Governor of Iran’s Central Bank, IRNA reported.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will meet on Monday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani who is beginning a two-day visit to Russia. According to the press service of the Russian Cabinet, Medvedev and Rouhani “will discuss the current state and prospects for the development of bilateral cooperation in trade, economy, investment, the energy sector, industry and agriculture and progress in the implementation of large-scale joint projects in various areas.”
“They will continue to exchange views on the preferential trade regime between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Iran,” the press service noted.
The Iranian president will meet Russian President Vladimir Putinon Tuesday, his second day in Moscow. It will be the ninth meeting between Putin and Rouhani.
Rouhani and Medvedev are expected to sign 10 cooperation documents as well as to draw a roadmap for furthering future ties, IRNA reported.
At the EAEU summit last December, the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia approved the proposals to start negotiations on establishing free trade zones with Iran and other countries, TASS reported. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at that time that the Iranian president expressed his interest in signing a provisional agreement with the EAEU that would eventually lead to setting up the free trade zone.
On March 7, the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council decided to hammer out such an agreement, following a meeting in Bishkek. On March 13, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, a co-chairman of the Russian-Iranian intergovernmental commission, said that the document could be agreed on during the Iranian president’s arrival in Moscow.
According to Iran’s Ambassador to Russia, Mehdi Sanai, the signing of the agreement on a free trade zone between Iran and the EAEU will “create the appropriate conditions for increasing the volume of mutual trade,” considering that the trade turnover between Russia and Iran grew by 80% in 2016.