TEHRAN- Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak mentioned Iran a large and important partner for Russia.

He made the remarks in a press conference after his meeting with Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi yesterday in Tehran.

Heading a high-ranking Russian economic delegation, Novak arrived in Tehran yesterday for a two-day visit to explore ways for boosting the value of trade between Iran and Russia. 

The Russian minister said this trip is to follow the orders of Russian and Iranian presidents for the expansion of trade and economic ties between the two countries.

“Directors of some Russian leading companies in the oil, gas, electricity and transportation sectors are accompanying me in this trip”, he stated.

He said: “In our today’s meeting we discussed cooperation in different fields including oil, gas, mining, transportation and agriculture sectors as well as construction of new power plants and modernization of existing ones in Iran and also development of telecommunication network in the country, in addition to Russia’s selling products like Superjet airplanes to Iran.”

The official put the value of Iran-Russia trade at $1.07 billion in 2014 and said this figure should be increased noticeably given the potentials existing for cooperation between the two countries.

“One of the negative factors affecting expansion of our ties was the issue of financing the projects; therefore we pay special attention to this issue. We should think of a strategy to remove this problem”, Novak commented.

“One strategy is opening credit lines for financing our projects and the other one is establishing a joint Russian-Iranian bank for financing the investment plans” he added.

“We are today in a new stage of expanding relations”, the Russian official highlighted.

He mentioned railway and electricity as two sectors in them Iran and Russian have already cooperation and said the ties could be continued in these fields.

“We have already three plans with the total worth of about $4.5 billion for signaling a railroad in Iran and also the issue of modernization of power plants in Iran is in the final stage. The related project worth over $5 billion”, Novak explained.

“We hope that related deals will be signed before the upcoming meeting of Iran-Russia Joint Economic Commission, which is due in November, and we are ready to move forward rapidly in this regard”, he noted.

Iran-Russia Joint Economic Commission is co-chaired by Novak and Vaezi.

Vaezi, for his part, said his meeting with the Russian minister, who is heading a delegation of over 50 Russian large companies, was aimed at taking the necessary preliminary measures for holding Iran-Russia Joint Economic Commission’s meeting.

“We plan to work on a financial mechanism for Iran-Russia cooperation. The first suggestion is investing at least $5 billion by Russia”, the minister stated.

He said the possible projects in which Iran and Russia can cooperate were discussed in the meeting.

There are many fields of cooperation and given the measures which are now being taken for the expansion of ties between the two countries, Iran-Russia worth of trade could be increased highly from the current $1.07 billion, Vaezi noted.

“Now the ground is laid for the more cooperation between private sectors of the two countries. In today’s meeting we discussed the way for preparing the condition for more cooperation of Iranian and Russian companies”, he continued.

While Iran and Russia have already proper relation in the political, cultural and scientific fields, it is hoped that this trip will open a new chapter in the economic ties between the two countries, the official stated.

He said the relationship between Iran and Russia has been strengthened over the recent years in a way that presidents of the two countries visited each other five times in a period of less than two years.