Gilani arrives in Tehran for crucial talks with Iranian leadership
By Munir Hussain
TEHRAN, Sept 11 (APP): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani arrived here on Sunday on an official visit to Iran to hold talks with its leadership on ways and means to enhance bilateral cooperation in diverse fields especially economy and trade. The Prime Minister was received at Mehrabad airport by Iranian Minister for Interior Mostafa Muhammad Najar, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran Khalid Aziz Babar and high ranking officials.
Gilani was accorded warm red carpet welcome as he alighted from his special plane. He was presented guard of honour by a smartly turned out contingent of Iranian armed forces.
He was accompanied by Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister for Textile Industry Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Minister for Professional and Technical Training Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Senator Sughra Imam.
Gilani is visiting Tehran at the invitation of Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi.
Besides talks with Reza Rahimi, Prime Minister Gilani will meet Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.
According to Foreign Office Spokesperson, the Prime Minister will hold in depth discussions with the Iranian leadership on strengthening bilateral relations and will exchange views on regional situation.
Ties of the two countries are now marked by increased frequency of high level contacts, with both sides realizing the opportunities available to them as neighbours enjoying affinity based on common religion, culture and history.
During talks the two sides will focus on areas of security, industry, banking, trade, agriculture, oil and gas, transportation, communication, information and broadcasting, culture, science and education.
The 7.5 billion dollar Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project will remain one of the top agenda of the parleys.
The pipeline is being built between Asalooyeh in Southern Iran and Iranshahr near the border with Pakistan to carry gas from Iran’s South Pars field to Punjab and Sindh provinces.
Pakistan is looking for financing for construction of pipeline in its territory, which is expected to cost $ 1.5 billion.
Iran is expected to begin supplying gas to Pakistan by middle of 2014 with daily sales of 750 million cubic feet reaching one billion cubic feet per day by mid 2015.
This week, the two neighbours signed an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement covering a vast range of bilateral commercial activities.
The agreement was signed at the conclusion of the 18th session of their Joint Economic Commission (JEC) held in Islamabad on September 7-8.
At JEC session, they also signed two memorandums of understanding for setting up of a jointly owned Pak-Iran Investment Company and on cooperation between Pakistan Television Corporation and Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
The two countries have formed joint working groups to facilitate cooperation in agriculture and energy sector with Iran offering to sell 1100 mega watts of electricity to Pakistan, which is facing energy shortages.
Prime Minister Gilani in his talks with the Iranian leadership will fine tune the projects discussed at the Joint Economic Commission meetings.
Pakistan hopes to expand volume of trade with Iran from the current $ one billion to $ 4.5 billion within the next three years.
Both countries will look into impediments obstructing full implementation of Pakistan-Iran Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) concluded in 2004. Already both sides have given bilateral trade concessions under PTA on more than 600 items.
Pakistan has proposed a bilateral Free Trade Agreement besides measures for economic integration and reduction in business transaction costs.
Iran has expressed its keenness for opening of bank branches in each other’s countries and negotiations are continuing on this issue.
At present Iran has annual trade volume of US$ 150 billion mainly with the western countries including US and European Union.  Tehran has given its nod to review all tariff and non-tariff barriers on exports of Pakistan to Iran.
Both countries also plan to sign a memorandum of understanding to stop money laundering with cooperation between their Financial Intelligence Units.
The two countries are also considering building of Quetta-Taftan railway track, establishment of border markets and linking through optic fibre to boost commercial activities.