FNA - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev described Iran as the main partner of his country in the region, and voiced strong support for the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the world powers.

"We consider the Islamic Republic of Iran as our main partner in the region and are interested in the expansion of beneficial cooperation with Tehran, specially in transportation, agriculture and mines fields," Nazarbayev said in a meeting with Iran's new Ambassador to Astana Majid Saber on Wednesday.


He also referred to Iran's nuclear issue, and said, "We support respect for international agreements on Iran's nuclear program and its effective implementation in the future."


During the meeting, the Iranian envoy submitted his credentials to the Kazakh president.


Iran and Kazakhstan have tried in recent years to develop their mutual and regional cooperation.


In a relevant development on August 12, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Kazakh counterpart met in Kazakhstan and conferred on ways to increase economic cooperation, emphasizing the need for both countries to use national currencies for trade instead of dollar.


"Tehran and Astana can take more effective steps on the path of development of bilateral relations by establishment of more brokering ties and using their national currencies," President Rouhani said during the meeting on the sidelines of leaders of Caspian Sea littoral states' summit in the Kazakh port city of Aqtau.


He also underscored the necessity for strengthening banking relations between the two countries to further expand bilateral economic ties.


"The capacities of Iran and Kazakhstan in different sectors, specially in the field of transit, can be complementary to each other as Kazakhstan may be linked to the Southern waters through Iran, and Iran can be connected to China via Kazakhstan," Rouhani said.


Nazarbayev, for his part, said that trade ties between Iran and Kazakhstan had considerably increased in recent years, adding that his country was determined to further strengthen these relations.