Heading a high-ranking delegation, Raisi who left Tehran on Wednesday morning arrived in Samarkand, Uzbekistan to attend the 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Before leaving for Samarkand, President Raisi said that the goal of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to strengthen the neighborhood policy.

“Our goal is to strengthen the neighborhood policy and we were able to strengthen mutual political trust in the first step,” the Iranian president stressed.

“And in the second step, we follow the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its active presence in the region,” he added.

President Raisi went on to say that his government tries to use all the capacities that exist in the region for the benefit of the Iranian nation.

Speaking about Iran-Uzbekistan’s bilateral relations, the Iranian president cited, “Currently, our bilateral relations are good, but this amount of relations, especially in the field of commercial and economic exchanges, is not enough.”

The volume of trade exchange between Iran and Uzbekistan is currently 500 million dollars, which has perhaps reached its highest level in the last three decades, according to Raisi.

“Our relations with Uzbekistan can be strengthened and formed in the field of commercial and economic issues, transit, transportation and in various cultural fields,” President Raisi stressed, adding, “After talking with various cultural, economic and commercial departments, memorandums have been prepared, which, God willing, will be signed by both parties in the bilateral meeting.”

Raisi also announced that he will meet with the president of the countries attending the SCO meeting.

He listed commercial and economic exchanges, transit, transportation and cultural cooperation among the capacities and fields of development of Iran-Uzbekistan relations, and clarified, “The common civilizational sphere of the two countries can have a constructive effect in improving the level of bilateral relations. With the negotiations between the authorities of Tehran and Tashkent, memoranda have been prepared to expand cooperation in various economic, commercial and cultural fields, which will be signed by the parties”.

The President referred to the approval of the promotion of the membership of the Islamic Republic of Iran as one of the main members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the previous meeting of this important regional union in Tajikistan, and noted, “In the one year that has passed since the change of membership of Iran in the Shanghai Organisation, it was necessary for the documents of this organization to be reviewed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has been done and the documents have been approved by the government and are currently undergoing legal procedures”.

Raisi continued, “One of the important actions in this meeting is to finalize these documents so that they can go through their legal path and be signed by the honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs of our country and the foreign ministers of the member countries”.

The President also stated that on the sidelines of the Shanghai summit, meetings are planned with a number of heads of state participating in this meeting, and said, “Holding these meetings will definitely help in the development of relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the countries of the region”.

Raisi added, “In these meetings and negotiations, we will definitely have discussions about bilateral issues, regional issues and international issues, and we will try to bring our views closer to each other so that the role of the Islamic Republic in the region and the world is further improved, and the relations with neighboring countries improves as much as possible”.

“We will definitely discuss bilateral, regional and international issues in these negotiations and meetings, and we will definitely bring our views together so that the Islamic Republic can be more effective in the region and the world than in the past,” he continued.

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A sister city, or twin town, relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties.

While there are early examples of international links between municipalities akin to what we call today sister cities or twin towns dating back to the 9th Century, the modern concept was first established and adopted worldwide during the Second World War.

By signing the agreement, a platform for cultural cooperation and tourism activities will be provided for Iran and Uzbekistan, Qodratollah Noroozi, the mayor of Isfahan, said.

Isfahan plans also to sign sister city agreements with Porto in Portugal and Hyderabad in India, he added.

Norouzi went on to say that the twinning agreement between the cities is not only for municipalities’ cooperation, but, all relevant institutions, including universities, chambers of commerce, and other centers, can start their activities under the agreement.

Isfahan and Samarkand can use their commonalities, historical monuments to represent the cultural interactions between Iran and Uzbekistan, he stated, adding, the joint production of books, music, video, and virtual contents to introduce sister relationship and encourage the citizens to visit the other city are other notable programs.

Samarkand’s Mayor Bobumirza Oblakulov, for his part, said that cooperation between the two cities that share the same religion and worldview will lead to the development of international relations between the two countries.

Isfahan is a member of 9 networks of world cities and has so far signed sister city agreements with 13 cities of Xi’an, Kuala Lumpur, Freiburg, Florence, Havana, Lahore, St. Petersburg, Yash, Barcelona, Yerevan, Dakar, Baalbek, and Kuwait.

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