Foreign ministers of Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey sign documents

Foreign ministers of Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey have signed two documents to strengthen trilateral cooperation and improve peace and security in the region.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Turkish and Azeri counterparts Mevlut Cavusoglu and Elmar Mammadyarov, respectively, signed the documents and issued a statement on Tuesday at the end of the fourth session of trilateral talks in the Iranian city of Ramsar in the northern Mazandaran Province.

Zarif said foreign ministers of the three countries agreed that their deputies would set up a steering committee to follow up on decisions adopted during the trilateral meeting in Ramsar.

He added that the statement of the meeting called for bolstering cooperation among Tehran, Ankara and Baku based on common principles to which the three sides are committed.

The Iranian minister said the three sides agreed to cooperate on a variety of issues, including transit, energy, tourism and culture.

He emphasized that the three countries held good discussion and agreed to enhance cooperation to improve peace and security in the region.

Zarif also said participants at the meeting called for observing international regulations and implementing international accords, particularly a nuclear agreement, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in July 2015.

After Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia – plus Germany started to implement the JCPOA on January 16, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Tehran by the European Union, the Security Council and the US were lifted. Iran has, in return, put some limitations on its nuclear activities.

Zarif further noted that the next ministerial meeting between Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey will be hosted by the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Tehran, Baku and Ankara had met in the northwestern Iranian city of Orumiyeh in West Azarbaijan Province in 2011, in Azeri city of Nakhichevan in 2012 and in the Turkish city of Van in 2014.

The mechanism to set up the foreign ministerial meeting among Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey pursues objectives including exchanging views on trilateral and regional issues on the basis of understanding and ways to strengthen stability and security.