NAIROBI, 12 Jul: Iran\u2019s president has begun a rare visit to Africa as his country, which is under heavy U.S. economic sanctions, seeks to deepen other partner-ships around the world.
\nPresident Ebrahim Raisi\u2019s visits to Kenya and Uganda on Wednesday represent the first to the African continent by an Iranian leader in more than a decade. He is also visiting Zimbabwe.
\nAfrica is a \u201ccontinent of opportunities\u201d and a great platform for Iranian prod-ucts, Raisi told journalists in Kenya. He didn\u2019t take questions. \u201cNone of us is satisfied with the current volume of trade,\u201d he said.
\nIran\u2019s leader specifically mentioned Africa\u2019s mineral resources and Iran\u2019s petroc-hemical experience, but the five memoranda of under-standing signed on Wednes-day by the Islamic Republic and Kenya appeared not to address either one. Instead, they addressed information, communication and techn-ology; fisheries; animal health and livestock production and investment promotion.
\nKenyan President William Ruto called Iran a \u201ccritical strategic partner\u201d and \u201cglobal innovation powerhouse.\u201d Tea accounts for the bulk of Kenya\u2019s exports to Iran, but Ruto expressed interest in expanding the range of agricultural exports.
\nIran intends to set up a manufacturing plant for Iranian vehicles in Kenya\u2019s port city of Mombasa, Ruto added.
\nRaisi\u2019s Africa visit is meant to \u201cpromote economic diplomacy, strengthen political relations with friendly and aligned countries, and diversify the export destinations,\u201d Iran\u2019s foreign ministry said in a statement upon his arrival.
\nLast month, Iran\u2019s leader made his first visit to Latin America, stopping in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.
\nIn March, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to re-establish diplomatic ties in a major diplomatic breakth-rough. (AP)<\/p>\n
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NAIROBI, 12 Jul: Iran\u2019s president has begun a rare visit to Africa as his country, which is under heavy U.S. economic sanctions, seeks to deepen other partner-ships around the world. President Ebrahim Raisi\u2019s visits to Kenya and Uganda on Wednesday represent the first to the African continent by an Iranian leader in more than a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-220262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}