Russian, Iranian Officials Note High Level Of Cooperation In Technology, Innovation

High-ranking officials of Russia and Iran have praised the growing cooperation between the two countries and their companies at the Iran-Russia Technology Business Forum, which is taking place in Moscow on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2019) High-ranking officials of Russia and Iran have praised the growing cooperation between the two countries and their companies at the Iran-Russia Technology business Forum, which is taking place in Moscow on Friday.

Most of the Iranian businesspeople visited Moscow after attending the Innoprom-2019 International Industrial Trade Fair in Yekaterinburg. Apart from entrepreneurs, the B2B forum in Moscow was attended by Iranian Vice-President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei and vice-president of Russia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vladimir Padalko.

"Cooperation in the area of technology and innovation, which has been taking place through a special mechanism over the past years, has become a manifestation and symbol of the importance of our cooperation and interaction between our two countries and shows the strengthening of our bilateral relationship in this area," Sattari said in his opening remarks at the forum, noting that the event itself was proof of his words.

Padalko praised bilateral cooperation, noting the importance of interaction between the regions of the two countries.

"The desire of the two countries to develop a high-tech component in our exports encourages us to move toward cooperating with each other. Even in the areas, where we have been traditionally seen as competitors in final production, we are now looking for common ground, searching for joint enterprises and joint cooperation to present our production together at markets of third countries," he said.

The official added that sanctions, faced by both Moscow and Tehran, encouraged the growing cooperation between the two countries.

"We [Russia and Iran] are now facing the similar pressure from the West and use this situation for import substitution. This very factor contributes to a more open nature of negotiations and more goals, that our companies have not previously set," Padalko said.

The Iranian ambassador also touched upon sanctions.

"Today, when sanctions are constantly imposed against Russia and Iran, I believe that our economic cooperation is more needed than before. We need to fulfill potential of our cooperation in technology, and it is very important and relevant, especially in such times," Sanaei said.

Russian-Iranian Business Council Chairman Vladimir Obydenov, on the other hand, noted that there was much work to do to develop economic cooperation between the two nations.

"Russia and Iran are two great powers, which entered the 21st century as strategic partners. But the level of economic cooperation between our countries does not match our political cooperation. Trade turnover is not large, it could be significantly, I believe, tenfold larger than today," Obydenov said.

The official, in particular, named the lack of continuous, non-stop functioning of the financial services and banking as one of main obstacles to the growth of bilateral trade.