TEHRAN -- Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, Vice Admiral Ali Shamkhani, said here Saturday that Iran's defense policy is based on benefiting from an active diplomacy within the framework of expanding defense ties with regional and non-regional states.

Speaking at Tehran's Mehrabad airport on his return from a four-day visit to Belarussia and Greece, the defense minister further said that mutual cooperation in the fields of software and hardware was the most important topic discussed in meetings with officials of the two countries.

He said that joint long-term cooperation in strategic research and ways and means of exchanging expertise in research, production and marketing of defense products and equipment had been the major outcome of the visits to the two countries.

He added that promotion of defense and security cooperation with various countries was the result of President Mohammad Khatami's detente policy.

During his stay in Greece and Belarussia, Shamkhani conferred with the presidents, defense ministers and senior officials of the two countries. He also inspected important military installations and industrial centers in Athens and Minsk.

(IRNA)