TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Russian officials have traveled to Iran’s capital to boost economic ties between the two countries.

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh and Alexander Novak Minister of Energy of Russian Federation oversaw a meeting Tuesday of businessmen in Tehran, calling on them to increase trade.

Zanganeh said: “God willing, we will quickly increase the level of relations up to more than 10 times.”

Novak expressed the readiness of Russia for industrial cooperation, saying: “We have a lot of capabilities to strengthen our cooperation in the fields of electricity, natural gas, oil — as well as nuclear plants and aircraft parts and other equipment.”

Last year, trade between the two countries was about $1.5 billion.

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