Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held high-profile talks with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in Moscow on Friday, strengthening an alliance between the two countries driven by a mutual desire to challenge the West.
Iran and Russia are facing a number of sanctions from Western countries, and trade and finance are at the forefront of a strategic cooperation agreement that the two leaders are expected to sign.
The deal will also include military issues, but in contrast to agreements Russia has signed with other allies, the deal with Iran does not include mutual defense clauses, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow said. .
“Our country’s independence, security and self-reliance are very important,” Kazem Jalali told Iranian news agency IRNA, according to TASS. “We’re not going to join any bloc.”
Speaking in the Kremlin ahead of the meeting, Putin said Pezeshkian’s visit was “particularly important” because of the “large-scale, fundamental and comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement” that the two countries were planning to sign. said.
Before Mr. Pezeshkian’s arrival, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry S. Peskov said the signing of the treaty would be a “very important event” for Russia, and Iranian leaders said the trip was nothing more than a state visit. He described the above as a representative example. A strategic turning point.
“This treaty is not only an important turning point in strengthening bilateral relations,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on the social media network Telegram. He added: “This is not just a political agreement, but a roadmap for the future.”
Peskov said the timing of the treaty signing was not intended to distract from Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president on Monday, while Araghchi told Iranian state television that the signing was planned months in advance. He said he was .
Since the invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, Moscow and Tehran have grown closer. Iran has sent short-range ballistic missiles and drones to Russia to support the Kremlin’s war effort, according to U.S. and European officials. Iran has denied providing weapons to Moscow.
The Kremlin has provided some diplomatic support to Tehran, but has had to balance that relationship with maintaining ties with Iran’s enemies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Moscow and Tehran have recently faced major setbacks in the region following the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime.
Since the start of the war, Russia has sought to counter what it sees as an aggressive, imperial, and U.S.-led Western hegemony by creating and formalizing a series of treaties.
In June, Russia signed a partnership agreement with North Korea, and in December, a security treaty with Belarus officially authorized the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in the country. Both treaties included mutual defense clauses.
Russia also leads an organization known as the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which includes Belarus and other former Soviet states, including Armenia in the Caucasus and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in Central Asia. The organization, which aims to counter NATO, is based on the principle that an attack on one member state should be recognized as an attack on all member states. The alliance has recently been challenged, with Armenia effectively freezing its membership.
Meanwhile, Iran faces a series of domestic and regional challenges, including sanctions that have weakened its armed group and thrown its economy into chaos. Trump’s return as US president will likely result in further pressure and efforts by the US government to isolate Iran.
Apart from defense issues, Russia is working with Iran and other countries to develop an alternative to the Western-led Swift. Swift is a global messaging service that connects over 11,000 financial institutions and allows them to alert each other about pending transactions.
Moscow also wants to build a railway through Iran that would connect Russia directly to ports in the Persian Gulf. Aragushi said the deal signed on Friday will allow Iran to become a conduit for Russian gas exports through a network of pipelines, transporting gas from the Caspian Sea to the coast of the Persian Gulf. That means Iran is “becoming a major hub for gas exports,” he said.
Jalali, the ambassador to Russia, told Iranian media that Russian and Iranian leaders recognized that the old agreements between the two countries were outdated and did not reflect the realities of the current world and regional order. spoke.
He said the new agreement “takes into account all aspects of bilateral relations, including political stance.” How do we view power and how do we work together to move forward? ”
