Pointing out that the trade volume between Turkey and Iran increased from $5 billion to $11 billion in the past four years, Mottaki asserted that the Iranian policy of improving relations with Turkey will continue in the wake of the country's presidential elections, which took place in June.
“We have had high-level consultations over the past four years; this policy will continue. My colleague, Davutoğlu, and I agreed today to have our next joint economic commission meeting sometime in the next three months. I also invited Davutoğlu to visit Iran, and this will take place in under one month,” Mottaki told a select group of journalists on Tuesday afternoon following his bilateral meeting with the Turkish foreign minister on the sidelines of the meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) group, held in İstanbul.
The two ministers discussed regional issues, including developments in Iraq, and agreed that regional problems require regional solutions, according to diplomatic sources close to the meeting.
Mottaki also had bilateral talks with Pakistani FM Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Canadian FM Lawrence Cannon and Swedish FM Carl Bildt. However, Mottaki and Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, did not get together at the meeting. When it was the Iranian delegation's time to speak at the meeting, Holbrooke was not present. Holbrooke said his absence was not related to the tense relations between Iran and the US and that he was having bilateral talks during that time. He added that Mottaki generally contributed positively to the debate about supporting Pakistan, which seeks support from the international community to rehabilitate the Malakand and Swat regions used by the Taliban to fight NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Answering a question on whether he considers Turkey a mediator between Iran and the US, Mottaki said:
“Today, public diplomacy and different possibilities for expressing positions are there. We have very clear position towards the US. The results of the [George] Bush administration's policies in our region, whether in Iraq, Lebanon or Afghanistan, showed that the US needs some change. Now Mr. Obama says he is a man of change and that he would like to bring some changes to US foreign policy. I think everybody, in different parts of the world, wants to know what these changes are. What we are saying is, all the parties welcome changes to failed policies but the effectiveness of change depends on practical change, not a change in words.”
