Iran, Turkiye Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Establish Free Trade Area – Official

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Iran and Turkiye have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a free trade area between the two countries, the Head of the Maku Free Zone Organization, Hossein Garousi, said on Tuesday, adding that the project would be completed in the near future.

"Studies on the establishment of a joint free economic area between Iran and Turkiye are ongoing and corresponding memorandums of understanding have been signed. The project will be finalized soon," Garousi said in an interview with Iranian news agency IRNA.

The corridors would run from the city of Sarahs in Turkmenistan to the city of Bazargan in the northwest of Iran, near the Turkish border, and from Chah Bahar, the city in the south of Iran, to Maku, a city located to the west of Bazargan, so the two roads would connect in the area of the city of Bazargan and then head toward Turkiye, Garousi added.

In January, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited Turkiye with a high-ranking political and economic delegation at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.