TEHRAN – Iran and Russia held their 12th joint economic committee meeting in Moscow on Tuesday, discussing ways to give a boost to the bilateral trade.

Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Va’ezi and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak co-chaired the meeting, in which the two sides drafted a roadmap for increasing the volume of transactions, the IRNA news agency reported.

Officials from private sectors of the two countries explored opportunities for cooperation in the fields of energy, oil, electricity, commerce, and science.

Va’ezi, also held a meeting with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov on Wednesday.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Shuvalov said lifting of sanctions against Iran as a positive measure which will notably improve economic relations between the two countries.

Russia will definitely pay attention to establishing long-term trade ties with Iran, he added.

Russia was the 23rd leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), according to Iran Customs Administration. 

Iran exported $92.52 million of non-oil goods to Russia and imported $329.86 million of non-oil products from the country in the seven-month period. 

Also, Russia was the 18th major importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, with importing and exporting $296.509 million and $667.18 million of non-oil goods from and to Iran, respectively.