Turkmenistan's interest in exporting to European countries sounds a warning to Iran; official
Chairman of Iran–Turkmenistan Joint Chamber of Commerce Majid Mohammadnejad says Turkmenistan is interested in cooperation with Europeans and it can sound a warning to Iran and Turkmenistan’s neighboring provinces.
Speaking to ILNA news agency and touching upon the latest development on Iran-Turkmenistan trade, Mohammadnejad said that due to the sanctions, access to precise statistics and figures of exports and imports and also the volume of trade is a very difficult job and one can only stick to the official figures which are released by the official channels.
He added that despite the border problems between Iran and Turkmenistan and due to the significance of trade with neighboring states, all Iranian state and private sectors have done their best to identify and reinforce new methods in its trend with Turkmenistan.
He added that after a webinar held in April, 2021, between the two countries, the trade between Iran and Turkmenistan has faced a growth and setting record like in the volume of exports via railway comparing to the preceding year,, adding that the loading during this year’s New Year holidays hit 25,000 tons while the figure was only 112 tons in the same period in the preceding year.
Mohammadnejad went on to say that in the marine transportation, Turkmenistan has been the top destination for goods for exports from Mazandaran.
"Golestan Province is one of the neighboring provinces of Turkmenistan whose foreign transit of goods in the first five months of the current year has been around 3.5m tons worth over $8m," he added.
"All statistics show a growing trend in trade with Turkmenistan and only political problems have been creating hurdle in way of considerable progress for exports to Turkmenistan."
Mohammadnejad stated that Turkmenistan is mostly interested in cooperating with European countries and it can be a warning to Iran’s economy and the neighboring states.
He then pointed to the amount of imports by Turkmenistan in 2015 which was $6.8b andh declined to $2.7b in 2018 and it shows Turkmenistan has reconsidered its imports policies seriously.
He said during the meetings of presidents of the two countries it had been predicted Iran’s exports to Turkmenistan to hit $2b, adding that due to the change in the policies of Turkmenistan, Iran’s one-billion-exports to Turkmenistan will be satisfactory.
Mohammadnejad went on to say that Iran and Turkmenistan have been historically trade partners and above all they have many cultural and religious commonalities which can boost their ties but there are some stonewalling in way of their trade which is expected to be resolved soon.
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