Rouhani: Iran keen for joint projects with Azerbaijan, Russia
President Hassan Rouhani voiced Iran’s willingness to promote trilateral cooperation with the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia by carrying out various joint projects.
In a Saturday meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Tehran, Rouhani called for efforts to strengthen cooperation among Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia and said: “There are various projects in the region that we can carry out trilaterally and multilaterally.”
He also pointed to the opportunities for cooperation between Tehran and Baku in the energy industry and construction of dams and power plants.
The president further noted that extension of a new railroad line that connects the Iranian cities of Qazvin and Rasht would allow rail access to the border city of Astara, expressing hope that immediate implementation of the major project would serve the interests of the two Muslim neighbors.
The visiting Azeri minister hailed the “brotherly and growing” ties between Tehran and Baku, saying there are no obstacles to the enhancement of political, economic, cultural and social relations with Iran.
“Iran and Azerbaijan have always sought to establish peace and stability in the region through their regional cooperation,” he said.
Mammadyarov described as important the current relations between Iran and Azerbaijan in various areas including the Caspian Sea and various dams and power plant projects and said the two sides’ trade ties will expand further after the mentioned projects are accomplished.
He also said that connection of the Iranian railroad to Astara would mark the completion of a strategic regional project that would link Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia and allow Iran to have access to the Black Sea via Georgia.
“The Rasht-astara railway project is a strategic and significant regional project,” Mammadyarov said.
The top diplomat further conveyed an official invitation from Azeri President Ilham Aliyev to Rouhani to attend the next Nonaligned Movement (NAM) conference in Baku.
Rouhani on Wednesday inaugurated the railroad line connecting the city of Qazvin to the provincial capital of Rasht in northern Iran.
The new track is a major section of a railroad line dubbed the ‘Green Corridor’, which connects the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf.
The railroad line, stretching 164 kilometers, will be also extended to the port city of Anzali and further to the city of Astara in Iran and a border city with the same name in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Iran has accelerated efforts in recent years to complete the sections of the international North-south Transport Corridor (NSTC) that pass through its territory.
The NSTC concept was formalized by India, Iran and Russia in 2000.
Tasnim and IFP News contributed to this story. Iran on Saturday inaugurated its biggest complex for the production of lead, copper and other non-iron alloys in the northeastern province of Semnan.
First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri brought on stream the privately-funded factory with the nominal capacity of 100,000 tons a year in the town of Aradan.
The complex comprising 10 mills includes a battery recycling plant which can annually produce 60,000 tons of lead from five million disposed car batteries with the highest environmental standards.
It also has the capacity to produce 12,000 tons of high-quality copper cathode from mineral.
The plant can fully supply Iran’s need for lead and copper. According to the plant’s manager Hojjat Aliloo, 30 percent of output will be exported to Asian and European countries. US citizens traveling to Europe without a visa will be a thing of the past come 2021. The European Union announced on Friday that American travelers will need a new type of visa – a European Travel Information and Authorization System or ETIAS – to visit the European Schengen Area, CNN reported.
The Schengen Area is a zone of 26 European countries that do not have internal borders and allow people to move between them freely, including countries like Spain, France, Greece, Germany, Italy and Poland.
Currently, US citizens can travel to Europe for up to 90 days without a visa.
To apply for the ETIAS, US citizens will need a valid passport, an email account and a credit or debit card, the EU said. Minors, the website said, will still only need their normal passports to travel after the visas go into effect.
The Union said that the ETIAS visa is valid for three years and allows Americans to enter the Schengen Area as many times as necessary.
On the ETIAS website, the European Union said it “has recently decided to improve their security level to avoid any further problems with illegal migration and terrorism.”
The United States has been in a dispute with the EU’S European Parliament and European Commission over visas for Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Romania and Cyprus. Travelers in those five countries are the only EU nations that the US requires to apply for a visa.
In 2016, the European Commission first released a report calling for the US to grant the same visafree status to those five countries as the other 23 EU nations in exchange for US citizens maintaining the same visa-free status in the Schengen Area. EU rules require equal treatment for all member states.
The report also indicated, however, that the commission wanted to wait until after President Trump was in office to “push for full visa reciprocity.”
In June 2018, the Parliament voted in favor of the Commission imposing visas on US citizens.