TEHRAN - Abdollah Jafari, the director of international agreements in the Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) of Iran, has said cooperation with the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) would be a great opportunity for Iranian ports to realize their trade potentials.

According to Jafari, such international unions and negotiations with the leaders of the countries present at such summits could be a good platform for Iran to pursue its goals for expanding international trade, the PMO portal reported.

Given the current situation in the face of U.S. sanctions, the recent developments in Afghanistan and the serious determination of the 13th government to restore the country's economic interactions, increasing trade and developing economic cooperation with the countries in the regions and across the world is a necessity for Iran, the official said.

He stressed the importance of making greater use of economic potential in the field of transportation and transit at the crossroads of East-West, and North-South and said: “A special attention to the development of joint cooperation with the east (especially China and India as two important members of SCO) and the Eurasian countries (especially the Caspian littoral states), can be an effective and ground-breaking way out of the existing economic bottlenecks and a new window for increasing trade and improving the country's economy.”

Jafari further underlined the great capacities of Iran’s northern ports along the Caspian Sea and said: “Paying special attention to the transportation potentials in the Caspian Sea, it is possible to use the facilities created in the northern ports of the country to increase the trade interactions and use combined transportation mechanisms with Caspian littoral countries, as well as the CIS and Eurasian members.”

“The Caspian Sea as the largest lake in the world with an area of 380,000 square kilometers, has 6,500 kilometers of coastline and expands on the borders of five countries; it includes several major transportation corridors such as the North-South corridor, the Caspian Sea-Black Sea corridor, and Trans-Caspian corridor while playing a pivotal role in other new routes and emerging corridors,” he explained.

The official pointed to the existence of more than 20 international ports and terminals in the Caspian littoral states and specified: “Caspian littoral ports, with a total operating capacity of about 140 million tons and having 300 active vessels, including the Russian fleet with 150 vessels, the Iranian fleet with 60 vessels and three other countries with a total of 90 vessels have a high capacity to develop maritime trade relations in the region.”

Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi traveled to Tajikistan on Thursday to attend the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

EF/MA