President Jacob Zuma says he is confident that a solid foundation has been laid for the elevation and consolidation of bilateral relations between South Africa and Iran into a strategic partnership. Zuma‚ who is on a two-day state visit to Iran‚ was speaking after a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with whom he said he had just completed a round of successful bilateral discussions.“It was a meeting characterised by the spirit of friendship and frank exchange of views in support of our mutual objective to transform our bilateral relationship into a substantive strategic partnership‚” he stated.Zuma said relations between the two countries were conducted within the structured framework of the Joint Commission established in 1995 and the Deputy Ministerial Working Group.“This is an inter-sessional mechanism to review progress and ensure the implementation of the decisions and outcomes of the Joint Commission.“Our bilateral relations are also informed by regular high level exchanges‚ such as the very productive visit of South Africa’s Deputy President to Iran at the end of last year.“It is in this regard that today we discussed various mechanisms that we can deploy to strengthen our political‚ trade‚ investment and economic‚ as well as people-to-people relations between our countries‚” Zuma stated.He added that he was accompanied by a business delegation‚ which signalled South Africa’s willingness to consolidate business relations between the two countries and accept the challenge to dramatically expand trade volumes.“My Ministerial delegation has also reported positive outcomes following consultations with their Iranian counterparts.”..