Iran's Vice-President for women and family affairs Shahindokht Mollaverdi and a visiting cultural and scientific delegation from Kyrgyzstan stressed the need for increased efforts to consolidate bilateral relations between Tehran and Bishkek in all sectors. In the meeting, Mollaverdi expressed hope that the visit made by the six-member Kyrgyz delegation would pave the way for further development of cultural, scientific and academic collaboration between the two friendly countries. Stressing the need for setting up of Iranian studies and Persian language departments in Kyrgyzstan universities, she said that promoting Persian language can help strengthen bilateral ties. The Iranian official also proposed signing a cooperation agreement under which the two countries can share experience and facilitate collaboration among the institutions active in the field of women's affairs. The Kyrgyz delegation voiced the enthusiasm of Kyrgyzstan's cultural and scientific bodies to expand bilateral ties with Iran. The Kyrgyz delegation consisting of two university chancellors, head of Kyrgyzstan National Library, head of State Language Commission and head of Women Congress arrived in Tehran to get acquainted with Iran’s cultural and scientific capacities. During its one-week stay in the capital, the Kyrgyz delegation met with a number of Iranian academic and cultural figures. Early in December, Kyrgyz Minister of Science and Education Kanat Sadykov and Iran's Ambassador to Bishkek Ali Najafi called for more educational and scientific cooperation between the two countries. In their meeting, Sadykov underlined the historical and cultural commonalities between the two countries and Iran's scientific progress, and called for more scientific and educational exchanges and close ties between universities and educational centers of the two friendly states. He said that signing a cooperation document between the two countries can be an important step towards increasing the interactions between scientific and educational centers. Najafi, for his part, expressed Iran's readiness to strengthen mutual scientific cooperation with Bishkek. Iran and Kyrgyzstan have recently expanded their bilateral ties and mutual cooperation in different fields. Kyrgyzstan has around six million population, and is a neighbor to China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.