Iran, Russia to set up joint financial institutions

Iran and Russia have underscored the necessity of establishing joint financial institutions to promote economic cooperation.

Iran’s Ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanaei and Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev held a meeting in the Russian capital on Wednesday, stressing the need to set up joint financial institutions to facilitate trade and upgrade the level of cooperation between the two countries.

The two officials urged closer cooperation in banking and insurance.

They also called for further coordination to organize the 11th meeting of the Iran-Russia Joint Economic Commission, which is scheduled to be held in Tehran.

Referring to the upcoming event, the Iranian diplomat further urged Russia to consider Iran’s proposals for two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on insurance and stock market cooperation as soon as possible.

The Russian official, for his part, said Iran’s proposals will be considered and submitted to the joint commission at the earliest.

Iran-Russia trade currently totals USD 5 billion a year, but economists say the two countries can at least quadruple the volume of their trade exchanges.

On March 14, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the Islamic Republic is determined to raise the volume of its “economic transactions” with Russia under long-term deals.

Moiseev also referred to illegal sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic by the US and said Moscow would like to draw on Iran’s experience in countering sanctions.

The US and its European allies have imposed sanctions on a number of Russian individuals and businesses over the crisis in Ukraine. They accuse Moscow of supporting anti-Kiev protesters in eastern and southern Ukraine. Russia denies the accusation and has promised retaliatory measures.