Iranian, Finnish FMs Hold Talks in Helsinki
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is Finland as part of a European tour, met with his Finnish counterpart on Tuesday for talks on development of the relations between the two countries.
In the meeting, Zarif expressed the hope that termination of anti-Iran sanctions under a nuclear deal with world powers would contribute to closer cooperation between Tehran and Helsinki.
Zarif also hailed as “promising” the prospect of bilateral relations between Iran and Finland.
For his part, Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini hailed the Iranian top diplomat’s trip to Helsinki with a delegation of business people, saying bilateral ties could improve in various fields, such as telecommunication and education.
The two senior diplomats also discussed the crises in West Asia and the ways to resolve them.
Earlier in the morning, Foreign Minister Zarif delivered a speech to a closed-door political forum in Helsinki on the opportunities and challenges of Middle East security.
He later held a meeting with Martti Ahtisaari, the tenth president of Finland from 1994 to 2000, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a United Nations diplomat.
Zarif’s busy schedule in Helsinki also includes participation in Iran-Finland economic and mercantile conference, as well as separate press conferences with Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö and Parliament Speaker Maria Lohela.
Travelling with a 60-strong delegation of Iranian businessmen, Zarif arrived in Finland on Monday night after a two-day visit to Poland.
He is also scheduled to visit Sweden and Latvia.
The European tour comes against a backdrop of international enthusiasm for enhanced ties with Iran after Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015 reached the agreement on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and started implementing it on January 16.