Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Iran and Russia cannot be enemies of each other, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is on visit to Moscow to attend the second summit of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), said at the meeting with a group of Iranians residing in Moscow, IRNA reported.

Touching on relations between Iran and Russia, the president said the two countries are historical neighbors.

"Our friendship is in favor of the two nations and all regional countries and must be strengthened", Ahmadinejad said.

Meanwhile, addressing the second summit of GECF Ahmadinejad said that it is not fair to see natural gas buyers make more profit than exporting countries.

"We don't want more than what we should get. Fair pricing and distribution of fossil fuels especially natural gas can help eliminate global inequality, opportunism, and dominance," Ahmadinejad said, the ISNA News Agency reported.

"Some countries are trying to impose their decisions on the global market through unilateral sanctions and political pressure," he said.

Ahmadinejad went on to say that the only way to end this monopoly is to administer a fair price mechanism for natural gas exporters.

Earlier Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that Iran will host the third summit of GECF.

The proposal to host the event was made by Qasemi at the GECF ministerial meeting in Moscow.

"The proposal was welcomed and unanimously accepted by the energy ministers attending the meeting," he said.

The GECF summit is to review the current situation of gas industry and the world economic situation.

GECF is an intergovernmental organization of 11 of the world's leading natural gas producers made up of Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. It was established in Tehran in 2001.

Kazakhstan, Iraq, the Netherlands and Norway enjoy the GECF observer status.

GECF members together control over 70 percent of the world's natural gas reserves, 38 percent of the pipeline trade and 85 percent of the liquefied natural gas production.

The three largest reserve-holders in the GECF - Russia, Iran and Qatar - together hold about 57 percent of global gas reserves.