Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Tehran has today hosted a meeting of Iran-France Joint Economic Commission with presence of French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

The session was the first meeting of the joint commission after 17 years, aimed at boosting mutual economic, political and cultural ties, Trend’s correspondent reported from the event.

During the session Ayrault said that French administration is trying to facilitate issuing visas for Iranians.

“We have announced this to our embassy in Tehran and French embassy is working on this,” he said.

Ayrault further underlined his country's efforts to further develop trade and economic relations with Iran through involving more French banks in interactions with Tehran.

"France has been active in guaranteeing exports to Iran and the French banks have played a role in this regard which shows France's confidence in trade with Iran and we will try to involve more banks," Ayrault said.

Zarif, in turn, underlined that the two countries have tripled the value of their trade exchanges in the first eleven months of 2016.

"The value of trade exchanges between Iran and France has exceeded $1.7 billion," Fars agency reported citing Zarif as saying.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran as a reliable partner is ready for sustainable economic cooperation on the basis of mutual interests with the European countries, specially France," Zarif added.

Iranian and French companies signed five cooperation documents at the end of the two countries’ joint economic commission session.

The documents envisage cooperation for development of Mashhad international airport, construction of a bioethanol plant in the western city of Kermanshah, and holding pilot training courses for Iran and regional countries as well as cooperation in fishery industry and caviar ‎production.

Heading a high-ranking 60-member political-economic delegation, Ayrault arrived in Tehran on January 30.

During his two-day visit, Ayrault is scheduled to meet with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani.

The commercial ties between Iran and France have been rising considerably since the nuclear deal went into force in January 2016.

The trade turnover between Iran and France amounted to € 1.5 billion over the past 10 months.

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