A delegation from Azerbaijan Republic is slated to arrive in Tehran today to consolidate bilateral relations and discuss the implementation of agreements signed earlier on joint projects in the energy sector.
The Azerbaijan delegation, which will include representatives of oil, telecommunication, banking, and energy companies, will be headed by Minister of Economic Development Shahin Mustafayev, Fars News Agency reported.
"We are presently hashing out organizational affairs such as setting the date for the first meeting of a working group as well as specifying the agenda of its activities," said the deputy head of Azerbaijan's State Agency for Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources Jamil Melikov.
Azerbaijani officials have voiced their willingness for Iran's partnership in Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project to transfer sour gas from Iran's South Pars field to EU markets.
TANAP is set to transfer 16 billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan's third phase of Sahdeniz gas field in the Caspian Sea to the EU by mid-2018; however, without Iran's partnership, Baku will be unable to supply long-term demands of the EU in view of its sizeable resources.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev in a meeting in Baku in November 2014, underlined the need for expansion of bilateral ties.
During the meeting, the Iranian and Azeri presidents explored avenues for bolstering and reinvigorating mutual cooperation.
At the meeting, President Rouhani said that Iran and Azerbaijan enjoy abundant capacities to broaden cooperation, and said, "The two sides have ample economic, cultural, political, and international capacities which should be utilized."
He said, "The two sides are serious about using their capacities in the interests of their nations."
Aliyev, for his part, pointed to Iran-Azerbaijan commonalities, and said, "The Azeri government pays special heed to closer relations between the two states and nations in different areas."