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Senior Iranian and Uzbek officials inked on Sunday 11 cooperation agreements between the two countries in the presence of Presidents Ebrahim Raisi and Shavkat Mirziyoyev, state-run Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

The agency indicated that the two sides signed a "preferential trade agreement and cooperation in the fields of transportation and transit, pharmaceutics, standards and insurance, joint free zones, technology and innovation, and agriculture."

Prior to signing the agreements, Raisi had welcomed Mirziyoyev, the first Uzbek President to visit Iran in over 20 years. The two presidents held a private meeting and then took part in the signing ceremony.

According to IRNA, senior officials of the two nations discussed ways to expand bilateral cooperation between Iran and Uzbekistan.

Heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, Mirziyoyev arrived Sunday morning in Tehran and was welcomed by the Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Abbas Aliabadi at Mehrabad Airport.

This comes a couple of days after Raisi confirmed upon his return from his tour in Latin America that Tehran signed 35 cooperation agreements with Latin American countries in the fields of mining, reactors, and various other areas.

Iran's signing of economic and bilateral memorandums with numerous countries comes despite Western sanctions imposed against it. In March, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that US sanctions against Iran are not effective, or working "much less than we would ideally like."

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