Kazem Jalali: Iran-Russia relations will witness important events

According to Fars International News Agency, Iran’s Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said in an interview with the Russian news agency “Tass” that Russia and Iran are actively developing bilateral cooperation and important events are expected to occur in their relations.

Kazem Jalali said: Since the beginning of 2022, the two countries have widely exchanged views with political and economic delegations, and during this time, the presidents of both sides have had numerous contacts, both in person and by phone, and they will meet and talk in the near future.

Iran’s ambassador to Russia added: This shows the closeness of all-round relations between our countries. In the future, we will see great events in bilateral relations.

According to this Iranian diplomat, Moscow and Tehran actively cooperate in multilateral formats. Jalali stated: Iran and Russia are seriously cooperating with each other in relation to multilateral formats. Iran’s membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and its negotiations with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to sign permanent free trade agreements, as well as the presence of the Iranian president at the BRICS summit, show that the countries have close positions and many areas for cooperation.

In another part of his statement, Iran’s ambassador to Russia said: Tehran is preparing the necessary documents to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

He pointed out that the process of full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization includes several steps that a candidate country must implement within the set time frame. According to the plan, Iran is preparing documents and going through these stages and regularly informing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

He emphasized earlier (June 16) at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) that Russia is a country that is Iran’s priority for developing relations.

Kazem Jalali previously stated at the Iran-Russia joint business conference in Tehran, “The volume of trade between Iran and Russia will reach 4.5 billion dollars in 2021, while this figure was only 1.6 billion dollars in 2019. Of course, the capacity of the two countries in developing trade is much more than these figures. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak stated in Tehran (4th of Khordad) that while Moscow and Tehran are struggling with severe US sanctions, Russia is strengthening trade with Iran.

According to the confirmation of Russia and Iran, Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to visit Iran today, Tuesday, July 19 (July 28). Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also arrived in Tehran to participate in the tripartite meeting in Astana.

The Astana summit consists of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russia and Turkey as guarantors of the ceasefire in Syria, which aims to strengthen the peace process and resolve the Syrian crisis. A senior Kremlin official said that Iran, Russia and Turkey will issue a joint statement after the Tehran meeting as the guarantor countries of the Astana process.

The end of the message/T 16