Ankara, Jan 18, IRNA – Interim Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said here Monday Turkey's President Abdullah Gul would visit Iran in near future.Salehi added, 'Iran and Turkey have given special strategic bonuses to each other, have mutual understanding over major issues, and cooperate closely, contributing to regional peace and stability.'
According to IRNA, Salehi who arrived in Ankara Monday night atop a delegation for talks with top Turkish officials further reiterated in his interview with IRNA upon arrival at Ankara Airport, 'The prerequisite for development, wellbeing and advancement in the region is peace, stability and seculrity and Iran and Turkey are moving in order to materialize those objectives in the region.'
He said that the relations between the two countries are historic, deep rooted, and broad scaled, adding that such comprehensive relation encompass the entire political, economic, commercial, scientific, cultural and social aspects, adding, 'The two countries have decisive statuses in the region and play important roles in the world.'
The Interim Iranian foreign minister said that the two countries' trade volume was 10 billion US dollars last year, while the two countries are trying to raise it to 30 billion this year, adding, 'Iran-Turkey relations are sample of best neighborly ties and the two countries' citizens have been frequenting to each others' cities needles of visas for many years now.'
In response to a question on the subject of his talks with his Turkish counterpart Ahmed Dawood Uglu he said, 'Our talks would be around the axes of expansion and deepening of bilateral relations, as well as the most important regional and international developments.'
Salehi added, 'One of the axes of our talks, too, would naturally be the late next week talks with the 5+1 Group in Istanbul.'
Focusing on the upcoming joint economic cooperation commission of the two countries, Salehi said, 'This would be the 22nd Joint Economic Cooperation Commission of Iran and Turkey, the regular convening of whose session till the 22nd is a sign of the fundamentally good and historic relations of the two countries.
In response to another question on the schedule of his visit of Africa, he said, 'The Islamic Republic enjoys a very broad relation with Africa and in that trip I would visit several friend African countries.
