This was revealed during a meeting between President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Dr. Mahdi Safari, the Deputy Foreign Minister In Charge of Economic Diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran on Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at State House, Entebbe.
Dr. Safari informed the President that Uganda will be among the East African countries that the Iranian President will visit in Africa in the near future.
“We are ready to cooperate with East African countries in trade and other developmental initiatives,” Safari told Museveni who welcomed Raisi’s visit, saying the two countries enjoy good working relations.
“It will be our honour to welcome H.E Raisi and receive him here. I have been to Iran myself about four times and I have welcomed several Presidents of Iran here. So H.E Raisi will be very welcome,” Museveni said.
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Uganda in 2010.
A powerful cleric close to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Raisi was elected Iran’s president in June 2021.
Since the beginning of his Presidency, Raisi has called for increasing cooperation with Africa and recognized its material and manpower capabilities.
Dr. Safari arrived in Uganda on Tuesday, for a working visit that is intended to further strengthen bilateral relations and bolster cooperation for the mutual benefit of both Uganda and Iran.
He was accompanied by Mr. Mohammad Soleymani, the Assistant Director-General for Africa, Mehdi Salehi, the Iranian Ambassador to Uganda; the Economic Director, Embassy of Iran Akbar Khorrami and Mr. Seyed Mohammad Aghamiri.
The two sides agreed that Iran sends a preliminary delegation to the joint cooperation commission before holding the cooperation commission meeting in Tehran.
Uganda and Iran agreed to the exports of medicine and medical equipment, nanotechnological, biotechnological, IT products and orthopedic equipment to Uganda; cooperation in banking.
The Iranian officials said his country will dispatch a medical research group to Uganda to examine cooperation on cattle diseases and also purchase of agricultural products. Both countries will also cooperate in the fields of oil and energy and production of electric motorcycles and tractors in Uganda.
Museveni speaks out
President Museveni welcomed the partnership by the Government of Iran to support Uganda especially in the health sector and promised to work with them.
“For the general pharmaceuticals, we are ready to work with you in joint ventures for any medicine. The same with the vaccine,” Museveni said, adding that it will help Uganda develop her pathogenic industry which offers huge economic opportunities in therapeutics, diagnostics and the vaccines.
“We are already working on all those vaccines here but it will be good to work with you,” said Museveni.
On trade, the President said Uganda has got a lot of production of goods including fresh products which Iran might be interested in and the two countries can exchange them in barter trade without going through the dollar.
Iran is facing hard-hitting U.S. sanctions over its alleged sponsorship of terrorism.
Like Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader wears a black turban, which signifies that he is a sayyid – a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad.
Source » chimpreports