Zarif in Romania: trade deals follow

TEHRAN, Nov. 09 (MNA) – Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has visited Romania after his Lebanese tour on Wednesday to address bilateral relations with his Romanian counterpart. Mr. Zarif is in his new round of European tour which was started in Bucharest from east of the continent; his visit is a return visit to travel Mr. Lazăr Comănescu made to Tehran in last March. A 30-strong delegation accompanies Zarif to Bucharest reportedly resolved to improve relations in trade, banking, transportation, medicine, mining, auto parts and agricultural machines. Iran’s trade with Romania includes imports of machinery and exports of oil products, mainly crude, and leather along with dried fruits. On Wednesday, Mr. Zarif told reporters that his meetings would focus on economic relations as well as improvement of traditional diplomatic ties; “there is ample grounds for both countries to work on; we provide to Romania the valuable sea routes of Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman in international transportation and potential path to untapped Central Asian markets and land-locked Afghanistan; with a developed and extensive railway, Iran provides any country good alternatives in land transportation; two MoUs have so far been signed with Romania,” Zarif told the press after meeting with his Romanian counterpart. “We hope that joint economic commission will contribute to improvement of trade; on today’s meetings, we discussed terrorism and extremism, drug cartels, etc. Romania is an EU member state and we could use its potentials for bringing positive changes to Syrian, Yemen, and Iraq; we also discussed possibilities of a visa waiver for diplomats,” he added. Zarif also briefly addressed the US presidential elections and Trump’s winning the election; “US president should see clearly the realities of the international politics; Iran and the US had not have political relations for decades, but the US is a party to the JCPOA and should remain committed to its obligations accordingly; the international community will also expect the US to remain so,” he told the press in brief comments. Mr. Zarif has on agenda visits also to country’s president, prime minister, and speaker of the parliament, as well as Iranian expatriates. He will also address a meeting on trade, and a session on fighting extremism and terrorism held by Romanian Center for Political Studies.