TEHRAN — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan co-chaired the 6th Meeting of the Turkey-Iran High-Level Cooperation Council on Tuesday.

During the meeting, which was held via videoconference, the two presidents discussed all aspects of relations between Iran and Turkey, according to Mehr.

The two sides exchanged views on bilateral relations as well as regional and international matters.

In the meeting, Rouhani said Iran and Turkey have had formidable relations throughout history.

“Relations between Iran and Turkey have been formed on very strong bases throughout history and the occurrence of bitter and unfortunate incidents has not harmed the ties between the two brotherly and friendly countries,” he said, according to Khabar Online.

The president said during the last seven years, Iran and Turkey have continuously strived to expand their ties as well as their regional and international cooperation.

“The two countries are two major regional powers and there have always been enmities toward both countries which have persisted until today,” he pointed out.

As a solution to the issue of common enemies, Rouhani called for improvement of relations in order to “thwart their plots”.

He also expressed the hope that the meeting would lead to productive results.

Erdogan, for his part, said holding the meeting in the face of the spread of the coronavirus shows the two countries’ resolve to expand and deepen relations and cooperation.

The Turkish leader further said that the two countries are expanding their cooperation and accelerating implementation of previous agreements signed between the two neighbors.

MH/PA