Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday officially welcomed Guyana’s Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo at the presidential palace in Tehran, the country’s capital, and they held discussions on several world issues as well as relations between the two countries, the Iranian News Agency (IRNA) reported, according to a GINA release.

At the meeting, President Jagdeo called for the expansion and consolidation of ties between the two countries while noting that there is great potential to bolster economic and commercial cooperation.

President Ahmadinejad supported this call, pointing out  that the current level of economic, cultural and political cooperation between Guyana and Iran can be bolstered.

He said further that he would like to see the expansion of relations and cooperation in these fields over the coming years.

“The capacities and potentialities existing in the two countries can be utilized to expand mutual cooperation,” IRNA quoted him as saying.

This is the final leg of the President’s trip to the Middle East that also saw him visiting Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to generate interest in Guyana as an investment location and to strengthen ties with non-traditional trading partners, GINA said.

Last year, Jagdeo had stressed that the global economic and financial crisis had made it difficult for Guyana to seek foreign direct investment (FDI) from the developed world and its traditional allies. As a result, he highlighted the need to develop new relations with other countries, including those in the Middle East.

He had made two visits to the region last year, visiting  Libya, Greece, Cyprus and Jordan, GINA added.