Turkey and Iran aim to boost trade and political ties, the two countries' leaders said Monday during Turkish President Abdullah Gul's visit to Iran.
Accompanied by a large delegation of ministers and businessmen, Gul arrived in Tehran on Sunday for a four-day visit and held talks with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Turkey and Iran should take steps to enhance trade and preferential trade agreement must be finalized as soon as possible, Gul told a joint press conference with Ahmadinejad.
Turkey is seeking to triple the trade volume with Iran despite UN and U.S. sanctions imposed on Tehran over its disputed nuclear activity.
Ahmadinejad said trade volume between the two states surpassed 10 billion U.S. dollars in 2010.
"We are determined to boost that figure to as high as 30 billion U.S. dollars. We have both the potential and the political will to that end," he told reporters.
Ankara has developed closer relations with its eastern neighbor since the ruling Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002. Turkey was one of the first governments congratulating Ahmadinejad on his re-election in 2009, which was criticized by Iran's opposition over alleged vote fraud.
Turkey and Iran saw bilateral trade volume surge from 1 billion U.S. dollars in 2000 to 10.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2010. Iran is the second biggest gas supplier of Turkey and the two countries are cooperating in energy field.
Turkey's improving bilateral relations with Iran have sparked concerns in the West, which suspects Iran is trying to make nuclear bombs with its nuclear program and fears Turkey, a long term NATO ally with a predominantly Muslim population, is sliding away from the West.
A non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Turkey cast a no vote for further sanctions against Iran in June 2010. Ankara argues Iran has the right to keep peaceful nuclear program and that a nuclear swap deal brokered by Turkey and Brazil with Iran in May 2010 should be on the table, instead of sanctions.
In an interview carried by Iran's state news agency IRNA on Saturday, Gul said Turkey backs a negotiated settlement of Tehran' s nuclear program.
"Iran is signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Therefore, Iran's nuclear issue should be solved through negotiation and Turkey will continue to facilitate this," he said.
Turkey hosted talks in January between Iran and six world powers over Tehran's controversial nuclear ambition, but no progress was achieved.
"Hosting such meetings and negotiations shows Turkey's independent and civilized status in the international arena and power balance," Ahmadinejad said at the press conference.
He thanked Gul for Turkey's support for Tehran's right "to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes."
Speaking of the developments in Middle East, Gul called on Middle Eastern governments to listen to the demands of their people.
"We see that sometimes when the leaders and heads of countries do not pay attention to their nations' demands, the people themselves take action to achieve their demands," Gul told the press conference.
He said the Middle East is witnessing major changes and that he hoped the transformation process would have an honorable and happy ending for all the nations living in the region.
Gul's visit on Monday coincided with a protest at a Tehran square in support of demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia, called by the opposition leaders Mir-Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.
The protest later turned into an anti-government demonstration and Iranian security forces fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.