Erdogan upbeat about fresh stage of Ankara-Tehran relations

Visiting Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said here on Wednesday that Turkish-Iranian relations would hopefully usher in a new stage of development this year. Speaking on the sidelines of the signing ceremony of a bilateral cooperation document, Erdogan said Ankara and Tehran are determined to boost trade exchange up to USD 30 billion in 2015. The Turkish prime minister arrived here late Tuesday at the head of a delegation which includes Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Minister of Development Cevdet Yilmaz, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci and Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz. Erdogan described his current visit to Iran as a good opportunity to discuss bilateral cooperation, voicing satisfaction with the signing of the cooperation document. Hailing bilateral economic relations as "very distinguished" as two-trade exchange exceeded USD 21 billion in 2012 but fell to USD 13 billion in 2013. Meanwhile, the Turkish premier said both countries should remove the existing obstacles to the promotion of bilateral cooperation in order to get to a targeted annual 30-billion-dollar trade volume. Erdogan said during a joint news conference with First Vice-President of Iran Eshaq Jahangiri that Tehran and Ankara could also have effective counter-terrorism cooperation. On his part, Jahangiri lauded Tehran-Ankara relations as significant and friendly, pointing to an economic agreement reached by both sides today. He said both sides had a plan to increase the size of trade exchange between both nations up to USD 30 billion by 2015. He added that Tehran and Ankara shared a firm determination to boost bilateral relations.