As reported previously here at PIMI, President “Park Geun-Hye“will arrive in Tehran within few hours. According to the other published news by general media:
President Park will start a three-day visit to Iran on May 1. Park, who will be leading a delegation of some 300 business people, plans to initiate discussions with Iran on a wide range of areas including energy and engineering. The visit will be the first by a South Korean leader since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1962.
The visit follows the lifting of sanctions on Iran under a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers in July 2015. The agreement went into effect in January.
According to the Iranian Official Media it is expected that sum of 17 B$ deals will be agreed as MOU’s and Agreements between the two countries.
In this respect, PIMI has provided some sub-titles of covering this historical trip.
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New chapter in Tehran-Seoul ties
President Park’s visit to Iran can open a new chapter in Tehran-Seoul relations after years of decline in relations. Since South Korea has the fourth-largest economy in Asia, the visit can impact the regional equations at the interest of Tehran and Seoul.
The two Asian states had high level economic cooperation before the 2012 imposed sanctions and South Korea was Iran’s fourth major trade partner until 2012. Despite the fact that sanctions did not result in cut of Iran-South Korea relations but the two states missed lots of opportunities.
South Korean president’s visit to Iran in the post-sanctions era can help revival of ties between the two states including Iran’s oil export to the energy thirsty country.
History of economic relations
The first meeting of Iran-South Korea Joint Economic Commission was held four decades ago and the two countries’ economic and trade ties have experienced lots of ups and downs since then.
The 1979 Islamic revolution of Iran gave way to promotion of Tehran ties with Seoul and the trade exchange between the two states enhanced from 500 million dollars to 8.7 billion dollars in 2014.
The commodities exported to Iran in 2014 by South Korea costs around 4.1 billion dollars which shows 8.3 percent growth compared to the previous year.
During the past Iranian calendar year (ended March 19, 2016), Iran’s oil exports to the South Korea witnessed 43 percent growth and at the same time, Seoul export of commodities was 24 times more than the previous year.
Korean officials have underlined raise of their export to Iran to 6.3 billion dollars in 2016 and increasing it to three times more than this number in 2019.
Iran is a major oil exporter to South Korea and Seoul exports electronic devices and care industry equipment.
Exchange of trade delegations; sign of improvement
The exchange of trade delegations between Iran and South Korea after the nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 proves the fact that there are political will in Tehran and Seoul for boost of ties.
South Korean officials are very well informed of Iran’s geopolitical importance in the region especially as an important intersection of North-South, East-West corridors.
Iran’s constructive role in regional developments, South Korea energy needs as well as presence in Iran’s market are three points that encouraged South Korean officials to compete with their rivals in revival of ties with Islamic Republic.
To read more about this event, please “Click Here” and additional news previously published at PIMI.
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About President “Park Geun-hye”
Park Geun-hye
