Mohsen Rahimi, the representative of Health Ministry in educational affairs, held a meeting with the Lebanese University president Fouad Ayoub with Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad FathAli in attendance.

Given the great cultural interactions between the two countries, the Lebanese University is willing to expand its academic exchanges with Iranian universities, said Fouad Ayoub, adding that some 75,000 students are studying in 17 different colleges of the university.

Presenting a report on the educational status of universities and the number of medical students in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohsen Rahimi provided an explanation for the international programs of Iran’s medical universities.

Currently students from 40 different countries of the world are studying in Iran, he said, adding that considering the qualitative and quantitative potentials of Iranian universities, there is a complete readiness for academic communications at the highest levels with Lebanon.

European business and banking authorities are after expanding trade and investment ties in the Islamic Republic of Iran vehemently.

Given the above issue, Iran-Europe Business and Banking Forum was held in Tehran early this week in the presence of senior economic and banking officials of various countries.

European lecturers in this Forum emphasized on the significance of JCPOA in promoting economic ties, adding, “strategies have been considered for the facilitation of trade and business relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to take advantage of benefits of this deal.”

Even US representative in Commission to Oversee JCPOA acknowledged that all details of this comprehensive nuclear deal inked between Iran and P5+1 (the five permanent members of UN Security Council plus Germany) should remain in place without any change, senior EU official maintained.

After the implementation of JCPOA, 250 European banks have been connected to the Iranian banks using SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication).

One year after the implementation of JCPOA, trade volume exchanged between Iran and Europe doubled, based on which, billions of dollars of Iran’s debts were paid completely.

Meanwhile, Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) experienced a considerable 12 percent growth suddenly.

Turning a banking relationship between Iran and EU, the official asserted, “Islamic Republic of Iran needs to ensure that it has won the trust of European banks, so that these European banks have expressed their readiness to engage in economic interactions with Iran.”

In conclusion, the official in charge of EU Commission said that three German banks are currently cooperating with the Islamic Republic of Iran and are willing to expand their relationship with Iran in all fields.”

She welcomed North Korean ambassador for his visit to the National Library of Iran, expressing hope that this visit would pave ways for broadening cultural relations between the two countries of Iran and North Korea.”

With its eight years of fruitful experience, National Library of Iran is considered as second home for intellectuals and thinkers, she said, adding, “suitable condition has been provided in the Center, so that scientists and thinkers can exchange their views with one another in various scientific and cultural fields as well.”

She went on to say that National Library of Iran is ready to establish interaction with North Korea and added, “the two countries of Iran and North Korea enjoy high potentials and capabilities to broaden their cooperation in cultural area in particular”

For his part, North Korean Ambassador to Iran Gang Sam Hyun satisfied with his presence in the National Library of Iran for the second time and added, “mutual progress between national libraries of the two countries of Iran and North Korea is of paramount importance, the issue of which should be taken into serious consideration.”

“We hope National Library of Iran will provide a chamber available to the North Korea in order to provide Korean books to the Iranian researchers and book enthusiasts,” the ambassador maintained.

“North Korea is after expanding and enhancing its cultural interactions with the Islamic Republic of Iran, so that signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Iran and North Korea will be considered as the first step for developing cultural ties, the North Korean ambassador concluded.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani met and talked with Vietnam’s National Assemly Chairwoman Thi Kim Ngan in Hanoi today.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Larijani told reporters that in the meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart, they had discussed expansion of trade, cultural, tourism relations and removing the obstacles ahead of their bilateral relations as well as issues relating to world security.

The Iranian parliament speaker said that he had visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum to show respect for his long-standing fight for independence.

Thi Kim Ngan, for her part, praised the long-standing bilateral relations between Iran and Vietnam, adding that her country will continue to support Iran in the international arena.

The Vietnamese parliament speaker went on to express hope for more friendly relations between two nations as expansion of bilateral relations benefits development and security in the two countries and region.

In this period, trade between the two countries reached $487 million. This is evidently to restore bilateral trade relations to the level prior to the intensification of cruel Western sanctions on Iran.

Increasing the capacities for economic cooperation as well as making joint investments were among the targets of officials of Iran and Singapore to expand trade relations by removing the obstacles.

“We are attempting to work out an effective solution to establish banking relations between the two countries,” said the head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, Gholamhossein Shafe’i earlier, in a meeting with Singapore’s non-resident ambassador to Tehran, Ong Keng Yong.

Prior to the tightening of sanctions, Singapore cooperated with Iran in the oil and energy sectors as well as providing techno-engineering services. At present, the country seeks an active presence in the Iranian market given the new atmosphere in the Middle Eastern state and its foreign relations in the post-JCPOA era.

Efforts by Iran and Singapore aimed at expansion of economic cooperation in the post-sanctions era are expected to result in greater participation of the latter’s investment companies in projects of the former’s renewable energies sector as well as closer collaborations between the two states and increased joint activities in the fields of oil and gas production, information technology as well as development of port and ship building industries, he concluded.

The Japanese Senior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeo Mori who is visiting Tehran met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday morning at the HQ of Iran’s ministry of foreign affairs in Tehran.

In this meeting, Mr. Zarif highlighted the good relations between the two countries in various fields and called for expansion of economic cooperation and interaction between the two countries especially in the fields of economy.

Also in the meeting, a host of regional and international issues were discussed by the two diplomats.

Iran and India shares social and cultural commonalities, he said, adding, “there is no limitation in enhancing relationship between Iran and India, so that appropriate opportunity has been provided for both Iran and India in order to broaden and expand their bilateral relationship in all fields.”

Energy, oil and gas account for Iran’s major export share and Iran has managed to play an important role in this respect as supplier of energy for Indian refiners and petrochemical firms, Karbasian emphasized.

Moreover importing more energy resources from Iran, it is hoped that India will invest in other areas in order to broaden bilateral cooperation, the economy minister stressed.

With the coordination made in this regard, economic problems facing the two countries will be settled in the very near future, he observed.

He also referred to the trilateral agreement inked between India, Iran and Afghanistan on the construction operation of Chabahar port last year (ended March 20, 2017) and said, “as a multilateral deal, Chabahar Port has created a suitable opportunity for Indian investors in petrochemical field, chemical fertilizers, etc.”

Islamic Republic of Iran is a stable market, so that Indian merchants can take advantage of this port optimally, he emphasized.

Turning to Iran’s economic programs, Karbasian said, “after signing a landmark nuclear deal dubbed “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA”, Iran managed to increase its domestic capabilities and also attracted more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in post-sanctions period.”

To conclude his remarks, the minister of economy said, “under the current administration, Ministry of Economy and Central Bank of Iran (CBI) managed to ink various deals with other countries, valued at $400 billion, so that these agreements have been used for the development of country’s economic projects.”