TEHRAN – The 8th Iran-Russia joint economic committee meeting will open today in Tehran.

Transportation and communication, commerce and banking, and energy are the main topics of the two-day meeting, the Mehr News Agency reported.
The Russia’s Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko who is the Russian head of the joint economic committee heads the Russian delegation.
The two countries signed a treaty in Tehran in January 2008 agreeing to cooperate in developing some of Iran’s vast oil and natural gas reserves.
According to the Iranian ambassador to Moscow Seyyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi the current trade level between the two countries is $3.5 billion. He has predicted that Tehran-Moscow trade will increase and next year it will reach $5 billion.
In January 2009, Tehran and Moscow signed an agreement to trade natural gas in order to increase their export efficiency and increase profits. Shmatko announced in July 2009 that Russia is eager to help Iran with the development of oil and gas fields in the Islamic Republic.
Beyond their trade and cooperation in hydrocarbons, Iran and Russia have also expanded trade ties in many non-energy sectors of the economy, including a large agriculture agreement in January 2009 and a telecommunications contract in December 2008.
Reflecting Russia’s growing economic relationship with Iran, the Russian minister of agriculture called Iran a “strategic partner” of Russia after the two signed the agricultural agreement in Moscow in January 2009.
Russian involvement in the Iranian telecommunication market continued to expand in August 2009, when Russia’s third largest mobile phone operator, Megafon, pledged to invest more than $4.5 billion to expand coverage in the Islamic Republic