Iran celebrates National Day

First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my congratulations to the great and noble nation of Việt Nam and its respectable Government on the occasion of Tết — the Vietnamese Lunar New Year — and wish a year full of happiness and success. Iran, with its very wonderful civilization as well as its brilliant and old history, is one of the first places in which mankind established collective life and built brilliant cities and monuments.

Geographical location plays an important role in destiny of a country and its people. The importance of a geographical location in terms of geopolitics (regional) and in terms of geostrategy (universal) can be very effective in the political and economic destiny of a country. As a vast country in south west Asia with a population of approximately 80 million and an area of 1,648,195 square meters, Iran ranks seventeenth in the world in terms of area.

Iran, located in the center of Eurasia, is a neighbor with Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey and Iraq. Neighboring these countries — along with bordering Caspian Sea in the north, Persian Gulf and Amman Seain the south — has made Iran a country with a strategic location in the Middle East.  Iran is replete with variety of mines such as coal, gold, manganese, lead and copper mines. It should also be noted that in fishing and pearling (pearl hunting), oil, gas, petrochemical, textile and automobile industries, Iran has a lot of words to say. With 138.2 billion barrels of crude oil, equal to 11 per cent of global oil reserves and 26 trillion cubic meters of gas, equal to 18 per cent of the global gas reserves, Iran ranks the second in the world in terms of oil and gas reserves.

One of the important pages of Iran’s history is the Islamic Revolution. The revolution triumphed with the participation of the all strata of society under the leadership of Imam Khomeini on 11^th February, 1979 and was recognized by a referendum with 98.2 per cent votes in favor. Following the 1979 revolution, Iran sprung up in all dimensions one after another.

The I.R. of Iran has gained a lot of great achievements in various fields. One of the proudest achievements is rapid growth and active presence in scientific fields with thousands of patents being registered. Iranian researchers have been among the world’s top scientists elevating Iran to a country with high position in scientific products. Other achievements which we never had before can be seen in mastering technology of nuclear fuel cycle and being among the world’s 5 top countries in that field, successful entry into new sciences such as nanotechnology, laser, microelectronic, robot manufacturing science, software, hardware development and building supercomputer, unprecedented increase in capacity of universities, number of scholars & students, significant increase of doctors transforming the country into regional hub of medical tourism, acquiring knowledge in stem cells, being among top countries in kidney, heart transplantation and eye diseases treatment, being first in pharmaceutical production, export in the Middle East, self-sufficiency in producing different vaccines. Industrial development has also made so fast progresses with construction of numerous industrial parks, refineries, complexes for building wind, gas and fossil power plants and construction of the first nuclear power plant in Bushehr and etc….

In domestic and foreign policy, under the leadership of Hazrat-E-Ayatollh Khamenei, Iran has considered transparent, clear and valuable measures and plans which arose from spirituality and transcendent ethics to promote prosperity and development in human societies. Thus the foundation and keyword of the foreign policy of the I.R. of Iran, emanating from the Constitution, emphasizing on principles such as respect for the dignity of human beings, realization of prosperity and well-being of the entire international community in peace, security, freedom, equality, independence, rejection of hegemony and negation of domination. Iran follows important principles such as independence, freedom and territorial integrity in accordance with policy of defying foreign interference in national sovereignty and internal affairs, non interference in internal affairs of other countries and strives for secure peace and security in region and the world.

Over the years, we have had excellent and significant ties with proud country and nation of Việt Nam and every day we are moving towards further expansion of relations. Objective evidence of the development of bilateral relations is the exchanges of Presidents, Ministers and high ranking officials between the two countries in 2016. Supreme Leader of Iran spoke highly of respectable and noble people of Việt Nam particularly the late Leader Hồ Chí Minh, and General Giáp; so, I see the outlook of the relations of the two countries very bright and promising. In conclusion, once again, I would like to extend my cordial congratulations to the honorable people of Việt Nam on the occasion of Tết festival which its ancient celebration and rituals share a lot of similarities with Iranian Norouz. I wish a year replete with happiness and success for all. Happy New Year! —VNS