Pakistan, Iran vow to boost trade to $10bn

April 22, 2024 (MLN): Pakistan and Iran have stressed the importance of continuing the expansion of bilateral relations and have decided, as a first step, to increase the trade volume between the two countries to $10 billion a year, said Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi in a joint press conference with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday.

"In our meeting today, we have decided to promote bilateral relations between the two countries, including political, economic, trade, cultural, and others as much as possible," he said.

The Iran's president stressed that the trade volume between Iran and Pakistan is not acceptable at all.

"We have decided, as a first step, to increase the trade volume between our two countries to $10bn," he further added.

To note, the Iranian president is on an official visit to Pakistan from April 22 to 24, 2024.

This is the first visit by any Head of State to Pakistan after the general elections in February 2024.

The Iranian President is accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising the Foreign Minister and other members of the cabinet, senior officials as well as a large business delegation.

Seperately, the two countries also urged the need to work together to overcome the challenges being faced by the region, said a press release issued by the Finance Division today.

This was discussed between President Asif Ali Zardari and the visiting Iranian President, during a meeting, held at Aiwan-e-Sadr, today.

The two leaders also discussed key regional and global developments, particularly the situation in the Middle East.

The President said that Pakistan and Iran enjoyed close fraternal ties based on shared religion, culture, and history, which needed to be further strengthened for the mutual benefit of the two brotherly countries.

He thanked Dr Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi for being the first Head of State to visit Pakistan after the general elections, which reflected the deep personal commitment of the Iranian President to Pakistan.

The President appreciated Iran’s principled stance and its consistent support to the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and their right to self-determination.

The President of Iran, Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, emphasized the need for further expanding and consolidating bilateral relations in all areas of mutual interest.

He said that the interest of the two brotherly countries called for further cementing economic, trade and cultural relations.

He highlighted that both countries had enormous potential to increase bilateral trade to the level of $10bn.

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