Raisi made the remarks during a meeting on Saturday with Nurdinjon Ismoilov, speaker of Uzbekistan’s parliament, who is in Tehran on an official visit.
“Although the development of political and economic relations between Iran and Uzbekistan has changed the status (of relations) over the past year, existing capacities in the two countries require us to intensify our efforts to enhance the economic and commercial ties between the two sides,” he said.
Raisi paid a visit to Samarkand, Uzbekistan’s capital, in September, to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. Ministers and government authorities accompanying him in visit signed 18 documents with Uzbek counterparts, covering various areas of cooperation, including trade and commerce, oil and gas, cargo transit, technology, and tourism.
At the meeting with Ismoilov, the president also called for the important role that the Iranian and Uzbek parliaments can play in advancing the cooperation between the two nations.
Ismoilov, for his part, praised Iranian president's foreign policy of prioritizing the enhancing of relations with Iran’s neighbors, saying that Uzbekistan, too, has put a great emphasis on the development of ties with its neighbors in its new constitution.
Earlier in the day, Ismoilov held talks with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. During the meeting, the top parliamentarians discussed ways to bolster ties between their respective countries.