TEHRAN – Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said here on Tuesday that the littoral states should strive to make the Caspian Sea a center of peace and friendship.

“The Caspian Sea should be turned into an exemplary sea in the world with regard to trade transactions between regional countries, and all littoral states of the Caspian Sea should focus all their endeavors on this objective,” Rafsanjani suggested during a meeting with Kazakh Ambassador Sabit Tairov.

He went on to say that bilateral relations between Iran and Kazakhstan have grown considerably in recent years and that the two countries can accelerate economic development through cooperation.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rafsanjani noted that relying on the capabilities of private sector companies and involving them in Iran-Kazakhstan bilateral relations could yield positive results for the two countries.

He assessed bilateral cooperation in the transportation, oil, and energy sectors as fruitful and noted that the fact that Iran has joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a member with observer status could lead to the expansion of cooperation between Iran and Kazakhstan in regional affairs.

For his part, the Kazakh ambassador to Tehran called bilateral economic and political relations constructive and said that the outlook for economic relations between the two countries is quite promising.

Tairov also pointed out that Iran-Kazakhstan relations could serve as a model for other countries in the Caspian Sea region and Central Asia.