Ahmedinejad To Explain Accomplishement Of His Three-Nation Tour

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday explained achievements of his tour to Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.
He said that it was a turning point in strengthening bilateral ties with the three nations.
Ahmadinejad said his visit to Afghanistan took place at the invitation of his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai.
“We held talks on regional situation and issues of mutual interests.”
He said that Iran and Afghanistan have friendly relations and Iranian nation has helped Afghan people to pass the hardship they suffered for several decades.
The Iranian president also said that the two sides have signed four memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in the fields of trade and economy, and investments in mines, water, electricity and energy sectors as well as bilateral cooperation on security affairs.
The Islamic Republic of Iran backs political process in Afghanistan to restore tranquility and national sovereignty to the war-torn country, he said, adding, “We advise Afghan nation to try to reconstruct their country.”
Ahmadinejad, welcoming his Turkmen counterpart’s invitation, visited Turkmenistan after Afghanistan and conferred with President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov on expansion of mutual ties.
Turning to the trade between Iran and Turkmenistan which stands at dlrs 1.3 billion, he said that the two countries inked new MoUs to increase cooperation in the fields of transportation, border trade, dam building as well as TV and radio.
Iran and Turkmenistan are to set up a joint committee on energy and gas cooperation, Ahmadinejad noted, adding that Tehran will prepare MoUs to be signed during the Turkmen president’s upcoming tour to Iran to take part in the summit of littoral states of the Caspian Sea.
On his trip to Kyrgyzstan to attend the seventh summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek, the Iranian president said that the summit has an effective role to boost economic cooperation in the region and made a reference to security cooperation too.
He said that participation of Iran in the summit as an observer is beneficial to the two parties (Iran and member states).
“After taking part in the SCO summit and declaring the stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I met with presidents of China, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan,” he noted.
“I held talks with Kyrgyz parliament speaker, finance minister and a number of academics, underlining the need for expansion of bilateral ties and the increase of scientific and cultural cooperation.” Pointing to his meeting with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the SCO summit, he said that Iran-China economic exchanges are increasing, and that the trade volume of the two countries will hit dlrs 20 billion this year.
“The Chinese president and I discussed on important political and international issues, which lasted one hour,” he added.
“I have once more invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate in the summit of littoral states of the Caspian Sea in Tehran.”
Referring to the meeting with his Kazakh counterpart, he noted, “We are to expand bilateral relations to unlimited level and set up joint commission by the end of this summer,” adding that the MoUs between Iran and Kazakhstan will be signed within the next trip of Kazakh president to Iran.
IRNAŠ