TEHRAN - Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen met on Tuesday Iranian Commerce Minister Mohammad Shariat-Madari in Iranian capital of Tehran.
In the meeting, Tuzmen said that Turkey aimed to increase its trade volume with Iran to 10 billion U.S. dollars.
Tuzmen noted that Turkey also wanted to sign a free trade agreement with Iran, and the first step of this agreement would be reducing tariffs.
Stating that Turkey was aiming to re-activate Silk Road and therefore, would launch a train on the route of historical Silk Road, Tuzmen said that the train would stop by Tabriz on September 28th, Tehran on September 30th, and Mashhad on October 3rd.
Turkey would increase its natural gas and oil imports from Iran in coming years to meet its increasing energy need, Tuzmen pointed out.
Tuzmen said that Iranian natural gas was planned to be transported to Turkey and then to Europe within the framework of the ''East Anatolia Natural Gas Main Pipeline Project.''
Recalling that 207,000 Iranians visited Turkey in the first half of this year, Tuzmen said that this number was expected to reach 400,000 by the end of 2004.
Tuzmen earlier opened Turkish-Iranian 18th Term Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting with Iranian Minister of Roads and Transport Ahmad Khoram.
(BRC) 27.07.2004