TEHRAN- Azerbaijan has expansion of economic ties with Iran among its top priorities, Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev avowed in Iran-Azerbaijan joint business forum held in Urmia, the capital city of north-western Iranian province of West Azarbaijan, on Thursday.

As IRNA reported, addressing the mentioned forum, which was also attended by Iran’s Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi, the Azeri minister, who led a 50-member economic delegation to Iran, underscored the two countries' determination for developing their trade ties and called Iran, Azerbaijan’s brother.
Mustafayev and Vaezi are the co-chairmen of Iran-Azerbaijan Joint Economic Committee.
As previously reported, the visiting delegation comprised of Azeri investors and entrepreneurs met their Iranian counterparts in joint economic conferences in north-western Iranian provinces of Ardebil and West Azarbaijan.
As the Azerbaijani ambassador to Tehran Bunyad Hasanov announced in late January, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will be in Iran for a formal visit in the near future, seeking stronger ties with the country.
In a December 2016 meeting attended by Vaezi and Aliyev in Baku, the two sides underscored the importance of all-encompassing relations, particularly in the economic sector.
“Economic relations between the two countries have made great progress as compared to the previous year,” Vaezi was quoted as saying at the time. 
Earlier in February 2016 during President Aliyev’s trip to Tehran, the two sides signed 11 memorandums of understanding in areas of transportation, electricity swap, health and medicine, oil, gas, and petrochemicals, etc. 

HJ/MA