University professor Hossein Ahmadi has said that the waning of the US Dollar is in the interest of Iran and Russia and the reason behind their bilateral monetary agreement.
In this episode of the program “Goftogooye Siasi” we discussed the current Iranian Government’s foreign policy regarding the neighboring states with Professor Hossein Ahmadi.
Dr. Hossein Ahmadi pointed out the difficulties in cultural relations with Moscow and said that unfortunately both the countries do not have a clear picture of each other which has led to an ill perception between the intellectuals of both the countries. “It’s one of the reasons behind the disuse of our mutual capabilities.”
He added that the Russians have active participation in Eurasian Economic Union and the Shanghai Cooperation Council which is a golden opportunity for Tehran too. “At the moment, our bilateral trade barely touches the three-billion-dollar milestone while it can be upgraded to twenty-five billion dollars a year.”
He further said that Russia imports forty billion dollars in terms of agricultural products while their annual pharmaceutical imports are around fifteen billion dollars. “It’s a significant opportunity for Iran; the Islamic Republic is a capable country in these fields. Although we’ve gained some success; it’s not enough.”
Dr. Hossein Ahmadi emphasized that despite Iran and Russia’s mutual interests they both suffer from the sanctions. Thus, a weakened Dollar can satisfy both countries. “In this context, Tehran and Moscow have signed the bilateral monetary agreement and now the Central Bank is expected to accelerate the process of implementation of the deal; in fact, the aforementioned deal was signed previously and now we need a national will to kick start the bilateral trade.”
He further said that the monetary deal was signed by both the countries during the previous administration but our Central Bank delayed the process. “The previous administration was just focused on the West and degraded the east in its foreign policy.” He added.
Dr. Hossein Ahmadi rejected the claims that if Iran increases its export to Russia, consequently its imports from this country will multiply which will end up Iran getting pressurized by the Russians; “it’s baseless. Unfortunately, the same malicious and untrue assumptions are targeting the 25 years’ cooperation plan between Iran and China. Some individuals inside the country and the western media are falsely trying to indoctrinate that Iran has been sold to China; When we ask them have they ever read the agreement, their answer is ‘No’.”
