European Interest

EU and Iran hold High Level Political Dialogue

Flickr/EU2017EE Estonian Presidency/CC BY 2.0
The EU was represented by the EEAS Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid.

The European Union and Iran held the fourth meeting of the High Level Political Dialogue on 26 November 2018 in Brussels.

This meeting was part of the regular exchanges between the EU and Iran. The agenda focused on bilateral issues, such as trade, energy, transport, environment, migration, humanitarian assistance, drug policy, education, culture, research, as well as counter-terrorism and regional issues, notably Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Afghanistan.

The EU was represented by the EEAS Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid and the Iranian delegation was headed by the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi. The EEAS, the European Commission as well as the EU Special Representative for Human Rights Stavros Lambrinidis and the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles De Kerchove took part in the High-Level Dialogue.

In parallel, discussions on human rights were held, as an integral part of EU-Iran political dialogue and as a continuation of regular exchanges held in November last year and in February 2016. The Iranian delegation for these talks included Ms. Parvaneh Salahshouri, Member of Iranian Parliament and Head of the Women’s Fraction, and Mr. Abdolrezah Mesri, Member of Iranian Parliament.

EEAS Secretary General Schmid also attended the third EU-Iran High Level Seminar on International Nuclear Cooperation taking place in Brussels on 26 and 27 November, which focuses on aspects of civil nuclear cooperation in line with Annex III of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, whose implementation the EU continues to fully support.

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