One of the major fields of cooperation which the three leaders will discuss is cargo transport, namely the International North–South Transport Corridor project, the Russian president told AZERTAC news agency, ahead of his trip to Azerbaijan.
"Our talks will focus on a flagship project – the International North–South Transport Corridor with a total length of 7,200 kilometers. It aims to provide the best possible opportunities for transporting transit cargo from India, Iran, and the Gulf States to Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation and further to Northern and Western Europe," Putin said.
He added that the three countries had opportunities for expanding cooperation in energy, tourism, healthcare, education and agriculture spheres. Also, he noted, the fight against terrorism was one of the spheres in which the three nations could increase the ties.
"I believe there are also good prospects for intensifying interaction to counter terrorism and drug trafficking in a trilateral format," the Russian leader said.
"Let me specifically underscore that the recent terrorist attacks perpetrated in various regions of the world prove yet again that terrorism can be addressed solely through a common effort guided by the norms and principles of international law and coordinated by the UN. In this endeavor, there can be no double standards," he said.
The Russian leader also touched upon regional burning issues — Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, its settlement and Moscow's role in it.
"We often hear that Russia is trying to monopolize the work related to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and push other mediators aside. That is a misconception. The trilateral summits on the Karabakh issue with the participation of the Russian President – there have been more than twenty such summits – perfectly complement the efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia, the US and France to settle this conflict," Putin said, adding that Russia is not attempting to impose "ready-made solutions" to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict upon Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Speaking of the cooperation with Azerbaijan and Iran in bilateral format, Putin focused on several key points to be discussed during the upcoming meeting.
As for Azerbaijan, he noted, its agricultural products import to Russia, as well as an increase of Russian export of fertilizers and agricultural equipment to Azerbaijan will play a significant role in increasing trade between the two countries.
He added that relations between the two countries can be described as a strategic partnership, and although the trade turnover between Russia and Azerbaijan has amounted to $568.5 million in the first five months of 2016, which shows the 52.8 percent drop compared to the same period last year, Putin expressed hope that the two countries will be able to bring the mutual trade back to the path of sustainable growth.
Russia intends to grant two state loans to Iran to the amount of 2.2 billion euro [$2.5 billion] to finance the construction of a thermal power plant near the city of Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf coast and the electrification of the Garmsar–Ince Burun railway section in the north-east of the country," Putin announced.
He described the nuclear relations between his country and Iran as strategic partnership, deeming it particularly true of the joint work in the field of peaceful nuclear energy.
"We will further assist our Iranian partners in implementing the Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program, including the processing of enriched uranium and the conversion of facilities to produce stable isotopes," Putin said.
Finally, the Russian leader revealed a much positive outlook of the bilateral trade with Iran than in the case of Azerbaijan.
"Trough collective efforts we have managed to increase the volume of mutual trade [with Iran]. In the first five months of this year, it grew by 70 percent, reaching $855 million," Putin said.
The upcoming meeting in Baku will be the first trilateral meeting between Russian, Azerbaijani and Iranian presidents.
