The head of Russia’s trade mission in Iran Rustam Zhiganshin said the first visa-free flights of tourist groups had started between Iran and Russia.
“The first visa-free flights of Iranian tourist groups between Russia and Iran have begun,” Zhiganshin said as quoted by Sputnik.
Iran and Russia signed an agreement on visa-free tourist travel in March. According to the deal, a visa-free regime is established for groups of tourists of up to 50 people entering Russia or Iran for up to 15 days.
The visa waiver agreement between Iran and Russia
The visa waiver agreement was first announced earlier in March by the Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov at the MITT exhibition, Russia’s premier B2B travel and tourism trade show, reports the Tehran Times.
“This document has already been passed on to [our] colleagues in Iran. We are now waiting for a similar [list] from you so as to let the tourist exchange process get underway,” Reshetnikov said, addressing his Iranian counterparts.
This readiness to launch touristic initiatives comes as Russian-Iranian relations in the past year have undergone major developments in the economic and political sectors.
On January 29th, this effort toward cooperation kicked off with the central banks of both countries signing an agreement connecting their interbank transfer systems.
With the signing of the agreement, 52 Iranian and 106 Russian banks are connected through the Russian Financial Message Transfer System, which will facilitate economic relations between the two countries, said Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Mohsen Karimi.
Russian-Iranian cooperation does not limit itself to the political and economic spheres, however, as proven by the trilateral security cooperation involving China as a third party.
Mehrnews, Tehran Times, Sputnik
