Armenia: Development of cultural ties with Iran

Armenian Ambassador to Tehran Grigor Arakelyan underlined the good and close relations between Tehran and Yerevan, and called for the further expansion of the bilateral ties, specially cultural fields."Armenia is so keen to have more expansive relations with Iran in cultural field," Arakelyan said in a meeting with the governor-general of Isfahan province on Friday. He expressed dissatisfaction with the current scale of the ties between Yerevan and Isfahan which are sister cities, and called on Isfahan's governor-general to hold Yerevan's culture week in the Iranian city. Iran and Armenia have taken major strides to promote their bilateral relations in the last few years. The bilateral trade volume between the two states stands at nearly $270 million, a figure that is expected to rapidly climb in a near future, according to officials. Iran and Armenia have mainly expanded cooperation in power and gas swap in recent years. Iran mainly exports natural gas to Armenia and imports power supplies from the Caucasian state through two transfer lines with a total power transfer capacity of 220kw/ph at present.