HANOI, Vietnam, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Vietnam is seeking to increase its investments in Iran's oil and natural gas industries.
Fars News Agency reported Wednesday that during a meeting with Iranian Commerce Minister Mahdi Qazanfari in Hanoi, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung remarked that his nation was interested in increasing Vietnam's investments in Iran's oil and gas sectors while he welcomed endorsement of a bilateral Vietnamese-Iranian free-trade agreement.
Dung also told Qazanfari that he supported official negotiations to develop a decadelong plan for deepening Vietnamese-Iranian ties, particularly in the fields of agriculture, fishing and maritime transportation and proposed that the two countries begin immediate discussions for signing a free-trade agreement at the earliest possible opportunity.
According to Dung, bilateral Vietnamese-Iranian trade doubled in 2009 even as he observed that the potential for increased bilateral trade is at present underutilized.
In turn Qazanfari told reporters that the prime factor for his visit was boosting cooperation between the two nations and pledged that Iran would support Vietnam's National Oil Co. in operating oil and gas exploration and extraction projects in Iran.
