Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari said on Tuesday that the expansion of regional transit routes is the main agenda of Iranian economic diplomacy.
Safari made the remarks addressing a Ministerial Transport Conference of Landlocked Developing Countries in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
He elaborated on Iran’s effective presence in regional transit corridors, and said that corridor is not merely a tool for transportation; it is rather a tool for enhancement of trade and promotion of national, regional, and global economy.
Iranian Minister of Road and Urban Development Rostam Qassemi was another Iranian official who addressed the conference earlier in the day where he expressed hope that the conference would help the fulfillment of the developmental goals of the landlocked countries.
The minister stressed that Iran’s economic diplomacy is focused on further deepening relations with developing countries and neighboring ones.
Many regional and international transit corridors make use of Iran’s transit routes, Qassemi noted.
Iran’s maritime routes in the Persian Gulf, Sea of Oman, Indian Sea, and the Caspian Sea play a key role in the transit of goods from and to the landlocked countries of the region, the minister added.
He said that Iran’s approach to regional and international transit cooperation is to avoid any kind of rivalry.
One-fourth of the total 32 landlocked developing countries of the world, which is comprised of eight countries of Armenia, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, has close bilateral and multilateral transit cooperation with Iran, the minister said, adding that Iran has shouldered part of the commitments of the international community to reduce the vulnerability of the landlocked countries by helping reduce their trade costs and accelerating easier access for them to the global markets.
He said that Iran is doing its share while it has been grappling with COVID-19 since 2020 and it is also subject to unilateral sanctions by the United States.
