TEHRAN- Development of economic relations with the neighboring countries is a priority for Iran under the sanctions condition, IRNA quoted Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian as saying on Monday.

Making the remarks in the third session of Iran-Russia provincial cooperation working group in Tehran on Monday, the Iranian minister, who is the co-chairman of Iran-Russia Joint Economic Committee, stressed that Iran’s expansion of its economic ties with the neighbors specially Russia, which is also facing the sanctions, could be effective.

The session of the mentioned working group was held on the sidelines of the 15th Iran-Russia Joint Economic Committee meeting and the second Iran-North Caucasus trade conference that kicked off in Tehran on Sunday and will wrap up in Isfahan on Tuesday.

Strengthening economic and trade ties with the neighbors and boosting non-oil exports to these countries has been put on agenda by the Iranian government.

In a press conference on Saturday, Saeed Zarandi, the deputy industry, mining and trade minister for planning, pointed to development of non-oil exports as one of the major seven plans of the ministry under the sanctions time and said, “Given the difficulty in international transactions, we put development of non-oil exports specially to the neighboring countries a top agenda of our work in the current year.”

He said that of the total $46 billion worth of non-oil exports in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2019), some $23.4 billion was to 15 neighbors.

In mid-April, Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani said the country plans to double its exports to the neighboring countries by the Iranian calendar year of 1400 (which starts in March 2021).

MA/MA