Tehran, Moscow seek to trade in national currencies

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in a phone conversation on Thursday emphasized on using national currencies in bilateral trade in a bid to give a boost to their economic ties, Mehr News Agency (MNA) reported.

They also stressed on removing dollar from the two-way transactions.
The two sides also pushed for finalising the memorandum of understanding (MOU) which was signed by leaders of the five countries attending the third Caspian Sea Littoral States’ summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Nov 18, 2010 to boost security cooperation among their states.

The MOU underlines that the Caspian Sea littoral states should help maintain security of shipping and navigation in the lake.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi has said that the value of trade ties between Iran and Russia can reach US$10 billion annually.

Salehi said that the current volume of Iran-Russia trade falls short of their potential, said that report.
“The two countries can cooperate more in the political, economic, trade, and cultural areas, oil and gas, and construction of power plants to raise the value of bilateral trade to $10 billion dollars a year,” he was quoted as saying. – Bernama