TEHRAN – Iranian Ambassador to Baku Mohsen Paka'ein asserts that the tripartite meeting between presidents of Iran, Russia, and Azerbaijan in Baku on August 8 will open a new chapter in regional cooperation between the three countries. 

During the two-day visit, both bilateral and tripartite meetings have been scheduled, where issues such as energy, fight on terrorism, and economy are high on agenda, the ambassador told the Tehran Times in an exclusive interview. 
In what follows, a transcript of the interview has been given:  

Q: In a recent interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), your Excellency had hailed bilateral ties between Tehran and Baku as “strategic”. How do you support your stance? 
A: I reiterate my comment to describe relations between the two neighboring countries as strategic. The stance can be supported at least from three perspectives. Initially, the two countries share numerous cultural, religious, and historical bonds, not breakable easily.
Also, the two countries offer great capacities in the transportation sector in all four areas of maritime, land, rail, and air. In the energy sector also the two can have closest ties particularly in swapping Baku’s gas to Nakhchivan and oil to the Persian Gulf and cooperation in joint oil fields in the Caspian Sea. 
Moreover, Tehran and Baku can expand bilateral trade considering that the each needs commodities produced by the other. This particularly becomes meaningful when factors such as short distance and low duty levied by the two states are taken into consideration. 
One more opportunity is the tourism industry. Annually, as many as one million Azerbaijanis travel to Iran and we hope to ease visa regulations to encourage Iranians to travel to Azerbaijan as well. 
The areas I referred to above are just opportunities which can make relations between the two countries strategic. But, there is also a second dimension to the strategic description I had of the bilateral ties. That is, Tehran and Baku are facing common threats, as well. Among these are terrorism and extremism as well as drug and human smuggling. 
The opportunities and joint challenges with cultural, religious, and historical bonds together pave the way for the strongest ties between Tehran and Baku. 

 “The more convergent policies regional countries adopt, the more peaceful the region will be.” 

Q: What is the importance of the tripartite meeting? 
A: The tripartite meeting is in fact a new trend in regional cooperation between Iran, Russia, and Azerbaijan as three key countries in the region at a presidential level. Negotiations will focus on how to make the maximum use of each other’s capacities to expand ties and address regional challenges and threats. This will be possible through adopting coordinated stances. In fact, the importance of the meeting lies in its emphasis on regional convergence. The more convergent policies regional countries adopt, the more peaceful the region will be. 

Q: How would the energy market and talks on the Caspian Sea legal regime be influenced by these negotiations?
A: We should remember that this is the first round of the tripartite negotiations and it won’t be realistic if we expect to find solutions to all challenges and problems. However, back to your question, since the three countries are sitting on colossal gas reserves, energy will certainly be an interest. It is likely the sides will hold preliminary talks during the session. But further negotiations at different levels are required to come up with a definite conclusion. With regard to the Caspian Sea, yes there will be general discussion but I wonder if the sides will go into the details. 

AK/PA