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The recent talks between the Armenian prime minister and Iranian president in New York were very successful, an Armenian expert on Iran, Armen Israyelyan said, stating the meeting would further boost the bilateral cooperation.    

Speaking to Panorama.am, the expert says it is symbolic that the first meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took place on the sidelines of a major international event – the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly.

“Before that they, of course, had shared with each other their approaches to the further development of relations between the two countries, but this new occasion was very important,” he said. “The Armenian and Iranian leaders managed to bring their positions closer on a number of issues. Both the Iranian and Armenian sides made interesting highlights; some of them were new and will positively affect the further development of Armenian-Iranian relations.”

In particular, the expert called attention to Rouhani’s statement that Iran seeks to launch a transport corridor that would connect Iran with the Black Sea Region and Georgia via Armenia.

“This is a remarkable statement, since it stresses Armenia’s importance given the recent high level of political relations between Armenia and Georgia. This could lead to a significant cooperation already in trilateral format,” the expert said.

Israyelyan also attached importance to the Iranian leader’s another statement unveiling his country’s readiness to provide technical and engineering support to Armenia’s North-South Transport Corridor project.

He next highlighted Rouhani’s call to Iranian businessmen to make more investments in Armenia, meantime giving his strong assurances about facilitating Armenian companies’ investments in Iran.

“In general, this new start of Armenian-Iranian cooperation is very successful,” he said.

The two leaders discussed various issues on the Armenian-Iranian cooperation agenda during the New York meeting held on Wednesday. Rouhani invited Pashinyan to visit Iran and expressed confidence that the visit would result in a more in-depth discussion of ways of expanding bilateral cooperation.