Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani agreed to boost trade and signed a slew of deals at a meeting on Tuesday, but steered clear of directly addressing differences over Yemen.
Erdogan’s one-day visit to Iran comes as relations between Ankara and Tehran — already strained by disagreements over Syria — have been battered by events in Yemen, where they have backed opposing sides.
Erdogan has accused Iran of attempting to dominate the region. Some Iranian lawmakers had called for Tehran to cancel his visit, with one politician saying the Turkish president wanted to rebuild the Ottoman Empire.
But analysts have said that the friction between the two neighbours will be kept in check by economic dependency — Turkey needs Iranian gas and sanctions-hit Tehran desperately needs export markets.
The two presidents signed eight agreements and took pains to emphasise the need for greater economic cooperation, with Erdogan saying that the two countries were far behind a target to lift trade volume to $30 billion.
Trade between the two totalled around $14 billion in 2014.
He also said Turkey and Iran should start trading in their own currencies instead of dollars or euros to avoid foreign exchange volatility.
“We shouldn’t be under the pressure of other currencies,” Erdogan told a joint news conference with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran. “We should do our purchases with Iranian money and Iranians with Turkish.”
He also said that Turkey would buy more natural gas from Iran if the price were lower.
“The most expensive natural gas that we import is from Iran. If this price were lowered, of course we would increase the amount of natural gas we buy from Iran,” said Erdogan.
Speaking at a joint news conference broadcast on Turkish television, both Erdogan and Rouhani sought to play down the regional tension, without making any concrete suggestions.
“I don’t look at the sect. It does not concern me whether Shiite or Sunni, what concerns me is Muslims,” Erdogan said.
“We have to put an end to this bloodshed, this death.” Erdogan, a devout Sunni Muslim has backed a Saudi-led military campaign against Al Houthi insurgents in Yemen. Tehran supports Al Houthis.
“We both believed that it is necessary for us to witness the end of war and bloodletting in Yemen as soon as possible,” Rouhani said.
