The joint virtual session between the Iranian Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) and the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey about bilateral, regional and international issues was held on Tuesday, July 27, 2021.  

The session was attended by Dr.Mohammad KazemSajjadpour, Deputy Minister of MOFA & President of IPIS; Mr.Majid Ghafelebashi, Research Deputy at the Center; Ali Khoshroo, Former Iranian Ambassador to the UN; Jalaleddin Namini, Khalil Shirgholami, and Alireza Bigdeli, Senior Experts at IPIS, on one side; And Mr.Guven Sak, Director of the Regional Studies of the Turkish foundation and of the Economic and Political Policies at the foundation, Ertan Tolsun, Director of Development Studies Center; Bozkurt Ersavci, Director of the Multilateral Trade Center; Murat Ersavci, Director of the Economic and Political Policies of the said foundation.

The session was held in the form of two panels, “Bilateral and Regional Issues: with focus on the Caucasus, Levant and Eastern Mediterranean ”, and “ International Issues: with focus on orientation towards the east of Iran and Turkey, and the future trends between the US and China” and the participants exchanged opinions.

Here are the most important issues touched upon at the session:

• The Iran Turkey relations, while having their roots in the cultural commonalities, are more driven by economic motives than basically security policies. The most important opportunities for the bilateral ties are as follows: (1) Enjoying a long history of relations and the multi- dimensional structure of the ties and cooperation in a variety of economic, political, cultural, security, intelligence, military and parliamentary areas. (2) The Iranian- Turkish border is one of the oldest borders for 400 years, on which there have been no clashes and serves as a symbol of peace and friendship. (3) The co-complementary of the two countries’ economic structure. (4) Existence of highest level political relations.
• The Iran/Turkey bilateral ties enjoy a strong structure based on interdependence and being multidimensional. Also, both countries have shared interests in the Middle East. Managing migration is important for both countries. Iran and Turkey are not merely two important neighbors in a complicated region, but they are among the formers of the evolving region and international order.
• Opening the Gyumri-Yerevan- Nakhichevan is a positive development in the Armenian/Turkey ties, which can join Iran and Turkey to the second line between themselves (Kars, Gyumri, Yerevan, Nakhichevan and Tabriz.
• The US-China rivalry is the most pressing feature of the international system, which has economic and geopolitical consequences. In this regard, Iran and Turkey can play a balancing role in the future geopolitical rivalries in the region.
• Of the grandest international trends are: 1) the corona pandemic, the takling of which takes closer cooperation among the countries. Also, focusing on the revival and improvement in the post-corona era is of importance; 2) Managing the geopolitical consequences of the New Green Deal, which is so important for the markets of Europe, India and China; 3) Tackling the issue of migration as a wide area for cooperation between Turkey and Iran in the near future; 4) Managing the process of Integration of Asia in the global economy.