TEHRAN – Iran and Turkey are currently using their national currencies in bilateral trade, said Jalal Ebrahimi, the secretary general of the Iran-Turkey Joint Business Council.

He added that the two neighboring countries have signed an agreement, according to which they use Iranian rial and Turkish lira in their economic transactions, the ISNA news agency reported on Friday.

The Iranian deputy central bank governor, Gholam-Ali Kamyab, has said that Iran has so far signed agreements with Turkey, Iraq, and Russia to use national currencies in bilateral trade.

Turkey and Iran aim to double annual trade to $30 billion this year as they push to lift international trade restrictions over Iran’s nuclear program. In January, they sealed a trade agreement after 10 years of negotiations that gave Iran preferred tariffs on some agricultural products and similar breaks to some Turkish industrial goods. Iran also seeks a bigger share in Turkey’s energy market. 

Iran is seeking partnerships with Turkish companies for highway, airport, and railway projects worth $10 billion over the next three to five years, Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Ali-Reza Bigdeli said on June 22. 

“We have many projects,” Bigdeli said. “We are ready to award these projects to internationally proven Turkish companies.” 

Turkey was the 6th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian fiscal year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.    

Iran exported $2.158 billion of non-oil goods to Turkey and imported $3.822 billion of non-oil goods from the country.