During a one-day visit to Tehran, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin called for stepped-up relations between his country and Iran, which Moscow regards as a “strategic partner.”
“Russia is genuinely interested in bringing cooperation to a higher level,” Mishustin said during talks with Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref on Sept. 30.
“We welcome Iran’s firm decision to further strengthen its strategic partnership with Russia and fully support this approach,” he was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency.
In recent years, Russia and Iran—both targets of Western sanctions—have become increasingly close in various fields, including defense and security.
The two countries cooperate closely in Syria, where they both maintain a substantial military presence to support Damascus against what they view as “foreign-backed terrorist groups.”
Washington, meanwhile, accuses Iran of providing Russia with missiles and drones for the latter’s invasion of eastern Ukraine—a claim denied by both Moscow and Tehran.
Mishustin’s visit to the Iranian capital was not the first by a high-level Russian official since Masoud Pezeshkian assumed the presidency in August.
In mid-September, Sergey Shoigu, head of Russia’s Security Council and former defense minister, visited Tehran, where he met Pezeshkian and other top Iranian officials.
At that meeting, the two sides restated their hope of further enhancing bilateral ties.
In remarks cited by Iranian media, Pezeshkian told Shoigu that his government sought to “upgrade the level of relations” between Tehran and Moscow.
Bilateral ties, he said at the time, would develop in a “permanent” and “lasting” way, thereby mitigating “the impact of [Western] sanctions.”
Days earlier, the United States, the UK, France, and Germany slapped a raft of fresh sanctions on Iranian state assets, including the country’s national carrier.
Speaking alongside his British and Ukrainian counterparts in Kyiv, Blinken said that Russia’s deepening military ties with Iran represented “unacceptable threats for Europe and [the] Middle East.”
Ryabkov said that the scope of Russia–Iran cooperation did not include anything that violated international law or “negatively affects anyone’s security or any regional balances.”
Strategic Partnership
Over the past several months, Moscow and Tehran have repeatedly hinted that bilateral talks aimed at forging a “strategic partnership” agreement were underway.In February, Alexey Dedov, Moscow’s ambassador to Iran, said a draft agreement was in its final stages but did not provide a specific timeline.
While the terms of the draft deal remain unknown, Dedov said the agreement would lay the groundwork for Russia–Iran interaction “for the coming years, perhaps decades.”
In previous remarks, Kazem Jalali, Tehran’s envoy to Moscow, said the strategic partnership deal would likely be signed before the end of this year.
Later this month, Pezeshkian is slated to attend a landmark summit of the BRICS group of nations, which Iran officially joined in January.
The Iranian leader is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit, which will take place from Oct. 22 to Oct. 24 in the Russian city of Kazan.
BRICS, a 10-nation economic bloc, was launched in 2006 to counter perceived Western economic dominance.
Its original members included Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS).
Earlier this year, Iran joined the bloc as a full-fledged member, along with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.
In 2023, Iran also joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a bloc of Eurasian states launched in 2001 by Moscow and Beijing.
