Turkey Calls For Enhancement Of Bilateral Ties With Tehran

Ankara, Feb 2, IRNA -- Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu termed the relations between Tehran and Ankara as historical, and stressed the expansion of the two countries’ bilateral ties. He made the remarks in a farewell meeting with outgoing Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Bahman Hosseinpour in Ankara on Friday. “Nothing should affect high level of relations between Iran and Turkey,” Turkish foreign minister said. During the meeting, Iranian envoy to Turkey, for his part, pointed to the increasing the trade volume between Tehran and Ankara to $24 billion in 2012 from $5 billion in 2008 and added that Islamic Republic of Iran is committed to develop ties with neighboring and brotherly country of Turkey. Trade between Turkey and Iran has risen sharply over the past decade. Turkey was Iranˈs fifth-largest oil customer in 2011, purchasing around 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day which accounted for 30 percent of its total imports and more than 7 percent of Iranˈs oil exports. Last October, Iranian and Turkish officials in a meeting in Ankara explored avenues to further develop mutual cooperation between the two countries in the transit and transportation sector. During the meeting in Ankara, Iranˈs Ambassador to Turkey Bahman Hosseinpour and Turkish Minister of Transportation and Communication Binali Yildirim urged prolonged efforts to expand ties especially in the field of transportation and communication, as a main contributor to the development of all-out ties between the two neighboring countries. The two officials also underlined the necessity for stronger relations and pursuing the planned increase of mutual trade to $30 billion by 2015./end