Iran, Azerbaijan ink six MoUs to boost ties

Iran and Azerbaijan on Sunday signed six memorandums of understanding (MoUs) during an official visit by President Hassan Rouhani to the neighboring country, Iran Daily writes.

The agreements were signed at a ceremony attended by Rouhani and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Baku.

A key document was a protocol of intentions that envisages the materialization of an ambitious project to create a corridor.

The corridor – named the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) – is an intercontinental multimodal route that would link St.

Petersburg to Mumbai. It primarily involves moving freight from India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia via ship, rail and road.

The protocol of intentions over the NSTC was signed by Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi and Azerbaijan’s Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov.

Other basic agreements that the two countries signed included one that concerned cooperation on banking issues, another on cyber security, and several others on tourism, agriculture and standardization.

President Rouhani arrived in Baku on Sunday. He is expected to sit in a trilateral meeting with Aliyev and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

They are to discuss certain regional issues as well as mechanisms to expand their economic cooperation in several key areas including commerce, energy, communications as well as transport.

Rouhani is also expected to hold a bilateral meeting with President Putin in Baku to exchange views on Tehran-Moscow relations as well as other issues of mutual interest.