Iranian president hails Erdogan's visit as "turning point"

TEHRAN, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Iran is "a turning point" in bilateral relations.

Raisi made the remarks at a joint press conference with Erdogan after their meeting in the Iranian capital of Tehran, according to the Iranian official news agency IRNA.

The Iranian president highlighted the importance of security cooperation between the two countries, noting that they stressed in the talks the necessity of guaranteeing security along the common border and discussed cooperation in the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crimes.

He said that the two sides also discussed expanding cooperation on regional issues and underlined the importance of protecting Syria's territorial integrity.

Raisi said that, given the two sides' capacities, the level of bilateral economic and trade ties fails to be satisfactory, proposing to set a target of 30 billion U.S. dollars for annual bilateral trade.

Erdogan arrived on Monday evening for a two-day visit to Iran at the invitation of Raisi, who received him with an official ceremony. Erdogan will attend a trilateral meeting on the Syrian crisis with Raisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Iran and Türkiye signed a number of joint cooperation documents and a memorandum of understanding at a ceremony attended by the two presidents.