Qatar and Iran signed around 14 agreements on 23rd February 2022, during the two day visit of President Ebrahim Rasis to Doha. On the trip, President Raisi had been accompanied by oil minister Javad Owji and foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian. They also participated in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) which took place in the Qatari capital. The deals involved cooperation between the two countries on trade, economy, culture and energy, among other key issues. The two leaders also discussed the framework and future of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal and the series of talks that have been going on related to the situation of Iran.
President Raisi told the reporters, “Bilateral relations and trade, economy, energy, culture and especially investment issues were discussed in the meetings [with the Qatari emir and other officials].” Further, that, “These agreements must be implemented.” Raisi also added “My colleagues in the government will follow up on this and Qatar’s emir also tasked his top officials to quickly pursue implementation of these agreements.”
An agreement was signed between the two countries’ free trade zone authorities while another was signed between the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran and its Qatari counterpart. An agreement on tourism, two agreements on sports and youth while one agreement was also signed on education. There was also the finalisation of a deal on the energy between Iran’s Tavanir and Qatar’s Electricity and Water Company.
In the defence sector, three agreements were signed between the authorities of the two countries on maritime transport whereas the framework to connect Qatar and Iran through an underwater tunnel, was also discussed in detail. In the field of culture and media, two agreements were signed. One of them was based on a two-year-long deal on cultural cooperation while the other was on outlining television and radio cooperation. Last but not the least, three agreements were signed on consular and diplomatic cooperation.
