Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said during his visit to Iran that it was “extremely important for Turkey and Iran to develop some common perspectives in order to end our region’s fight among brothers, to stop the ethnic and sectarian conflicts”.
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Davutoglu said his country is eager to boost trade relations with Iran now that the West has eased sanctions over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.
“There are no obstacles ahead of expansion of ties between the two countries and time is ripe for more relations to serve interests of both nations”, Hassan Rouhani said and rejected that some regional problems had affected Tehran-Ankara ties.
The neighbours are at odds over the war in Syria: Iran is a key supporter of President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey is his most outspoken critic.
Turkey has lagged behind other European countries in tapping into Iran’s newly freed $400 billion economy.
The presence of terrorist groups, he said, poses a threat to security and stability in the entire region.
“We have set a target of $30 billion for our trade”, Jahangiri said in a press briefing broadcast on state television, outlining a two year timeframe for upping the figure from its current $10 billion.
Boeing said it was assessing the steps needed to deal with Iran.
Trade between the two nations was $9.7 billion in 2015, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).
Last month Boeing announced it has received a license from the USA government to begin commercial discussions with Iranian airlines, opening the door to what could be the first United States jet deliveries to the Islamic Republic since the 1970s.
Iranian carriers have among the oldest fleets in global aviation following decades of sanctions that have left the country unable to leverage its geographical location and a domestic market of almost 80 million people.
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Iran sells gas to Turkey and an increase in exports is one of the topics that should be discussed during Davutoglu’s trip.
