TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran and Tajikistan have resumed trade cooperation after a long hiatus, said the vice president of Iran-Tajikistan Chamber of Commerce noting that traders of the two countries are now cooperating well, which indicates the progress of trade relations.

Speaking to Iran Daily in an exclusive interview, Kazem Shirdel added that Tehran-Dushanbe relations thawed after almost four years, and in June 2019, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin in a visit to Tehran invited Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to attend the fifth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), held on June 15, 2019.

The visiting Tajik foreign minister also called for the expansion of cooperation in different fields between Iran and Tajikistan, said Shirdel adding that President Rouhani’s visit to Tajikistan opened a new chapter in the two sides’ relations.

The official also said the political problem which had soured relations between Tehran and Dushanbe was resolved following visits by Rouhani and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to the Central Asian country.

Shirdel went on to say that the US and Iran’s enemies in the region are trying to spend a lot of money to stir up the mind of Tajik society against Iran and disrupt relations between the two nations.

Following the coronavirus outbreak, Turkmenistan closed Iran-Turkmenistan border crossings which has resulted in a halt in Iran’s exports of goods to Central Asian countries including Tajikistan, he said.

“So we export our goods to Uzbekistan, and then reexport to Tajikistan,” he said, “It is not easy to announce the statics of exports to Tajikistan, but we can say that 60 percent of the goods loaded to Uzbekistan are eventually exported to Tajikistan.”

Pointing to the boost of trade between Iran and Tajikistan during recent two years, Shirdel said Tajik traders have good cooperation with Iranian counterparts despite US sanctions.

It is about two months that rail trade has resumed, he said noting that Iranian traders have to spend an extra charge of $1,000-$1,200 for each wagon for reexport of goods to Tajikistan via Uzbekistan.

Raw materials, granules, tile, decorative stones, adhesives and materials for home appliances as well as plastic rolls are among the main exported commodities to Tajikistan, he added.