Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian explained the outcome of his visit to Pakistan, and said that the two countries are determined to increase the value of their trade exchanges to over five billion euros.
"This visit was made in order to speed up the process of implementing past agreements, focus on economic and commercial cooperation, plan for development in the future horizon, follow up on the signed cooperation documents and review the common political and security concerns of the two countries, in the framework of the development of the neighborhood policy," Amirabdollahian wrote in a post on official Instagram page on Friday night.
"After my visit to the friend and brother country of Pakistan, I returned to Tehran," he added.
The Iranian foreign minister said that in the first program and before the beginning of the talks with "my brother Mr. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, we planted a sapling as a sign of friendship between the two countries and we prayed to the Almighty God" for the success and pride of the nations of Iran and Pakistan.
He pointed out that although the volume of bilateral trade has grown well in the last 20 months, it is not satisfactory; and "our next step is to increase the volume to five billion euros".
"Therefore, in order to increase and deepen cooperation, at the end of the meeting of the high economic delegations of the two countries, under the chairmanship of the Deputy Minister of Economic Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dr. Safari, we signed the document of the five-year strategic plan for commercial cooperation between Iran and Pakistan together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of this country," Amirabdollahian added.
He further pointed to this meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and said, "In this meeting, while receiving the official invitation of the Pakistani government from President Raisi, we discussed the negotiations of the official delegations of the two countries in political, economic, commercial, tourism and border fields."
The Iranian foreign minister said that also, in Islamabad, he had useful meetings with the Speakers of the National Assemblies and the Senate and the the Pakistan Army Chief of Staff.
"On Friday, I also presented a wreath of flowers and paid respect to the tomb of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and while speaking at the conference on economic and investment opportunities between Iran and Pakistan, I witnessed the signing of the economic and commercial cooperation document between the Chamber of Commerce of our country and the Karachi Chamber of Commerce," he added.
"During our stay in Karachi, at the initiative of the minister of Sindh state and in the presence of the mayor, ministers and senior officials of Pakistan's Sindh state, we unveiled the commemorative plaque naming the new boulevard decorated with the name of late Imam Khomeini. At the end, I talked with my colleague again and we evaluated the results of the trip," Amir Abdollahian concluded.