Kazakh foreign minister, Iran's president hold talks on expanding trade co-op, transport links PHOTO

Kazakhstan and Iran have held high-level talks aimed at deepening bilateral cooperation, with particular focus on expanding trade, developing transport corridors, and strengthening regional ties.

The talks, which took place between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Murat Nurtleu, in Tehran, reaffirmed both sides' commitment to enhancing Kazakhstan-Iran relations across multiple sectors, Caliber.Az reports, citing Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry.

A central focus of the discussions was the expansion of trade and economic cooperation. Both sides highlighted a 50% increase in bilateral trade in 2024 and expressed strong interest in sustaining this momentum.

The talks also explored opportunities for collaboration in transport and logistics, with particular emphasis on leveraging the Caspian Sea’s transit potential and advancing the International North-South Transport Corridor.

The two delegations also exchanged views on regional and global issues, underscoring their readiness to enhance cooperation within multilateral frameworks.

Concluding the meeting, President Pezeshkian commended the current level of Kazakh-Iranian relations and voiced Iran’s commitment to further strengthening them. He also conveyed his best wishes to Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

For the record, Murat Nurtleu is currently on an official visit to Iran.

In another effort to deepen bilateral cooperation, Murad Nurtleu met with his Iranian counterpart, Seyed Abbas Araghchi.

During the meeting, Araghchi reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to fostering good-neighbourly relations with all regional countries, including Kazakhstan. He emphasised the broad potential for expanding ties, particularly in the areas of economy, trade, transport, and culture.

Araghchi expressed hope that the upcoming session of the Iran-Kazakhstan Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation — slated to convene soon in Astana — would provide a valuable platform to explore new avenues of collaboration, especially by strengthening links between the private sectors of both nations.

He also highlighted the importance of greater coordination within regional groupings such as the Eurasian Economic Union, the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), noting that Tehran and Astana share significant interests concerning the Caspian Sea.

For his part, Nurtleu conveyed Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s strong interest in developing comprehensive relations with Iran. He pointed to numerous opportunities for expanding cooperation, from the private sector to inter-provincial exchanges aimed at promoting people-to-people contacts and boosting commercial ties.

Both sides underscored the need for continued dialogue and coordination on regional and international issues, and pledged to support each other’s initiatives and interests in global forums.

At the conclusion of the talks, Araghchi and Nurtleu signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the two countries’ foreign ministries regarding diplomatic archives.

By Khagan Isayev