TEHRAN - Turkey plans to purchase more oil and gas from Iran amid greater energy needs and developing ties between the two countries, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced.

Making the remarks in an interview with the state-owned broadcaster, TRT Haber, on Monday, Erdogan said: "Turkey will increase its purchases of oil and natural gas from Iran", noting that the trade volume between Ankara and Tehran could reach $30 billion.

Erdogan's announcement came a week after his meeting with his Iranian and Russian counterparts, Ebrahim Raisi and Vladimir Putin, in Tehran, in which Turkey and Iran signed eight memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and agreements in various fields including trade and investment.

Erdogan reiterated the need for the development of ties at a joint conference with Raisi in Tehran last week, following the signing of the mentioned agreements.

Earlier this month, Erdogan and Raisi co-chaired a Turkish-Iranian High-Level Cooperation Council in Tehran in which the two sides discussed ways of expanding economic relations along with political ties.

During the meeting, the officials negotiated the extension of the gas export contract between the two sides for the next 25 years.

On the sidelines of the mentioned gathering, Iranian Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian also held talks with Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Dönmez in which the two sides exchanged views on cooperation in energy fields.

Later on, Head of Turkey’s Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization (KOSGEB) Hasan Basri Kurt met with Head of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO) Ali Rasoulian to discuss ways of expanding cooperation between the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the two countries.

In this meeting Rasoulian referred to the signing of an MOU between the two countries on cooperation between SMEs, saying: “President Raisi has emphasized on setting up joint industrial parks in the country’s special economic zones, considering the good infrastructure for setting up such parks in the free and special economic zones and the active presence of economic enterprises in these areas.”

EF/MA