TEHRAN – Iran discussed and made agreement with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Russia to combat money laundering and terrorist financing on the sidelines of the 37th meeting of the Eurasian Group (EAG) on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, IRIB reported.

Iran and Uzbekistan signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the sidelines of the mentioned event.

Based on the MOU, which was signed by Iran’s Deputy Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Hadi Khani, and the deputy prosecutor general and director of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Uzbekistan, the parties agreed to develop working interactions and mobilize existing capacities in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Khani, who is the head of the Iranian economy ministry's Financial Intelligence Center (FIC), emphasized the development of bilateral and multilateral interactions and cooperation with friendly countries.

The MOU with Uzbekistan is the sixteenth memorandum of cooperation between Iran's FIC and the financial information unit of other countries.

Iran, Tajikistan discuss cooperation against money laundering

Also, On the sidelines of the Eurasian summit, Khani met with Tajikistan’s minister of finance.

In this meeting, the official emphasized increasing interactions between the two countries, especially in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Tajik minister for his part emphasized developing cooperation as much as possible and invited the Iranian economy minister to visit Tajikistan.

Tehran, Moscow to expand collaborations in battling money laundering

Khani has also met Yury Chikhanchin, vice president and director of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of Russia, on the sidelines of the summit to discuss the relative affairs.

In the meeting, the two sides emphasized the need to increase interactions with the aim of a more serious fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, especially the fight against the financing of drug traffickers.

The Russian side, which is the head of the Eurasian regional working group in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), appreciated Iran's actions in combating money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism and said that he would announce Iran's successes to FATF and will do the best of his ability to remove Iran from the black list.

Also, in this meeting, the two sides agreed to discuss the formation of an eastern coalition to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.

EF/MA