Presidents of Iran and Turkey have expressed their opposition to any kind of sanctions and unilateralism in international relations.

Iran is keen to expand relations with Turkey in all fields, particularly in economic and trade sectors, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the fifth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe on Saturday.

“Iran and Turkey have taken valuable steps to expand and deepen relations in recent years and this trend should be accelerated in proportion to enormous capacities and opportunities,” the Iranian president said.

Iran and Turkey have agreed to step up their economic cooperation with the aim of reaching a $30-billion target set for their annual trade, voicing concern over the re-imposition by the US of unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic, a move which they say could affect the entire region’s economy.

The Iranian president also hailed “effective, successful and important” cooperation between Tehran and Ankara on regional issues and said, “Bilateral and trilateral cooperation, including with Russia, on regional issues, the Astana [peace] process, the fight against terrorism and Syria’s stability are very important and in line with promoting peace and stability in the region.”

At the end of the first day of the 12th round of Astana talks on April 25, Russian president’s special envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev said Iran, Russia, and Turkey, the three guarantor states of a ceasefire regime in Syria, are “clearly determined” to continue their fight against terrorism in the Arab country.

“The talks dealt with the situation in Syria in general, and in the northwestern region of Idlib in particular where the terrorist organization of Jabhat al-Nusra controls the majority of the area,” Lavrentiev said.

The Turkish president, for his part, hailed growing relations between Tehran and Ankara and said his country attaches importance to further expansion of ties.

Turkey is determined to enhance its relations with Iran in all fields, Erdogan said.

The Iranian president said the expansion of relations with neighboring and friendly countries, particularly Qatar, is among main priorities of the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy.

“Stability and security of regional countries are intertwined,” Rouhani said in a meeting with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on the sidelines of the CICA conference.