Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu is paying a visit to Tehran, and he was received by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, romania-actualitati.ro reports. On the agenda were issues related to industrial, economic, petro-chemical, oil and gas, transport and educational cooperation, as well as IT and research.
The visit is a first for Romania after the western lifting of sanctions against Iran in January. FM Comanescu stressed Iran is an important partner for Romania on regional plane and the two countries have strategic positions in relation with the conflict in Syria, Yemen, Iraq.
FM Comanescu also met his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, with bilateral talks tackling topics such as the fields of transport, energy, oild and gases, agriculture, tourism, culture and education. The Romanian foreign minister expressed the EU support for Iran’s constructive reinsertion into the regional balances regarding the anti-terrorism fight, the counter of the organised crime, and of the humand and drug trafficking, reads a press release by the Romanian Foreign Ministry.
The Romanian delegation includes an important economic component to explore business opportunities in Iran in the fields of agriculture, metallurgy, energy, auto industry and rolling stock, which has taken part to an important business forum organised by the Iranian Chamber of Industry, Mines and Agriculture.
The radio-romania.ro envoy reports that the period of sanctions have cooled down the bilateral relations between Romania and Iran, far from the level of economic ones before 1989. Trade exchanges amount to some USD 160 million.
On the streets of Tehran one can see Dacia Logan motor cars, but ordinary Iranians know very little about Romania, some of them believe it is still a communist country. The elderly remember Romanian train carriages, oilmen and… Ceausescu. The younger ones know almost nothing, except for former footballer Gica Hagi and tennis player Simona Halep (photo)!