TEHRAN – An Iran-Russia trade council is going to be established with the aim of removing obstacles to industrial and commercial cooperation between the private sectors of the two countries.

The council will be established as a joint body between the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) and Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), the TPO portal reported on Tuesday.

As reported, the council will start working officially on Wednesday, concurrently with the visit of a 50-member trade delegation from Iran’s Isfahan Province to Russia.

The Iranian delegation is going to be headed by TPO Head Alireza Peyman-Pak.

During the visit to Russia, which is aimed at strengthening and developing provincial cooperation between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation, Iranian businessmen will hold several meetings with their Russian counterparts in Moscow and then will travel to Saint Petersburg to explore cooperation opportunities there.

The visit of the Iranian delegation to Russia comes after a recent visit of a high-ranking trade delegation from the federation to the Islamic Republic.

Iranian capital Tehran hosted a grand Iran-Russia business forum at Espinas Palace Hotel on November 15 in which the Iranian and Russian traders and officials exchanged views on the expansion of economic cooperation.

Organized by the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), the event was participated by the 120-member Russian delegation as well as businesspeople and officials from Iran.

Iran and Russia traded as much as $4.63 billion worth of commodities over the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), according to an April report by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

Earlier in November, Igor Yevgenyevich Levitin, aide to the president of the Russian Federation, had also visited Iran on top of a high-ranking delegation to meet with the former Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Rostam Qasemi and discuss the expansion of transport ties.

EF/MA