Coronavirus restricted Iran-Sweden economic ties

In the meeting, Head of Iran-Sweden Joint Chamber of Commerce Abdolreza Rezaei welcomed the participants and Sweden Ambassador as well as Sweden Counselor and pointed to the problems regarding issuing visas for the members of the chamber.

Rezaei noted the necessity for developing trade cooperation between Iran and Sweden, adding that easing business visa issuance can be a good boost to commercial activities between both states.

He underlined the consular section of the Sweden Embassy should create appropriate conditions and better facilities for the members of the chamber in order to accelerate visa issuance and support of the economic activists.

Then Sweden Ambassador to Tehran Mattias Lentz, for his part, pointed to the development of economic cooperation between both states, adding that Sweden Embassy has always done its best to provide facilities to improve commercial level between Iran and Sweden and to develop trade but the current problem is because of the outbreak of Coronavirus which has closed down the visa section of the embassy since March.

He pointed to the ban for the arrival of foreigners to the EU zone states, adding that except the residents of EU states and EU state passport-holders, no foreigner is allowed to enter EU zone and this restriction has several times been repeated and by the end of 2020 it has been extended.

Lentz added that when there is no possibility to travel to EU, there will be no visa, too. So, for this reason, commercial sections of European Embassies are closed by the end of 2020, and the consular section of the Sweden Embassy is also closed, he added.

He expressed hope that as soon as the problems regarding the coronavirus are solved to ease traveling to EU, the embassy will do its best to issue visas but unfortunately, it will impossible by 2021.

He expressed hope that as soon as the end of the problem, economic cooperation between both states would return to better conditions.

Sweden was one of Iran’s top trading partners in Europe, which had reached a good level of trade relations after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed between Iran and world powers, however, with the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions, the restrictions led to a significant decline in the two sides’ trades.