TEHRAN (Iran News) – A new horizon is waiting for Iran-Russia ties when President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi pays an official visit to Moscow and meets Russian President Vladimir Putin. Days after Iran-China’s 25-year cooperation document officially came into force, now countdown has begun for another historic cooperation agreement and this time between Iran and Russia. According to reports, President Raisi is to visit Moscow next year for this historic deal.
A combination of Chinese and Russian infrastructure development will help Iran to replace its decaying structures due to the countries sanctions problems and it will be a blow to the U.S. sanctions and bully against Tehran to corner this independent country.
Tehran and Moscow are about to complete their work on a 20-year agreement on comprehensive cooperation, the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh has reiterated.
“We have established a new Foreign Ministry program, a roadmap to conclude 20-year agreements with our neighboring countries. The process is almost over with Russia” he said.
Khatibzadeh added that the document was similar to Iran’s 25-year comprehensive cooperation agreement with China, signed off in March this year.
President Ebrahim Raisi has recently in a phone call with Russian leader has said that Iran was ready to conclude a long-term agreement on comprehensive cooperation with Russia. The Treaty on the Basis for Mutual Relations and Principles of Cooperation between Russia and Iran, signed in March 2001, has been automatically extended every five years. On September 24, 2020, then Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said during a visit to Moscow that before extending the document once again, Tehran would like to consider the possibility of updating it.
Iran recently became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and is a key player in regional trade and security. Its energy and military assets will be needed in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Iran also has a renewed Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union which also includes Armenia, and with whom trade relations in particular are quickly progressing.
Despite significant U.S. sanctions against it, Iran’s GDP reportedly is $490 billion, similar in size to Belgium and Thailand. GDP per capita is about $2,300 amongst a population of 88 million. A combination of Chinese and Russian infrastructure development will help replace decaying assets due to the countries sanctions problems and ensure that Iran’s huge mineral oil and gas assets – it owns 12% of global reserves – flow east instead of west. Iran is a key part of the multimodal International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) with its ports at Chabahar on the Persian Gulf and Anzali on the Caspian Sea, through which products can be shipped to and from Russian and Iranian markets.
Kazem Jalali, Iran’s ambassador to Russia has also said that Roadmap for Iran-Russia cooperation in the context of an agreement is to be signed by the presidents of the two countries and then must be approved by the Iranian parliament.
Despite good political ties, the trade between the two countries is not satisfactory and this document can boost the trade between these to neighboring countries but this year their trade has improved comparing to last year.
Alexander Palishok, a Moscow State University professor, also believes that an upcoming visit to Moscow by Iranian President Raisi will help the advancement of relations between the two countries.
Palishok, said that Iran-Russia relations have always been on the right track in the recent years. He, also the head of Iran-Russia friendship association, said that the mutual ties have taken a boost since President Raisi took office in August.
That is why Raisi’s visit to Russia is on the spotlight and the two countries are making their best to prepare the ground for the visit, he added.
Referring to the capacities of Iran and Russia for promotion of relations, Palishok said that a nearly $2 billion trade level is not satisfactory and has to grow to $10 billion or even more.
He believed that an Iran-Russia strategic document can help relations between the two countries and can be regarded as a roadmap in future planning for bilateral relations.
The agreement can create a strong political, military and economic bloc in the region and it will benefit both countries in countering the West’s hostile policies and sanctions.
Of course Western media and officials as well as some pro-West analysts inside the country have started a campaign to tarnish Iran’s ties with Russia and China and to create a negative feeling towards it among Iranians Iran while the documents will not mean Iran is falling towards the East because the Islamic Republic of Iran is and will be independent forever and nobody can misuse it no matter it is Eastern or Western countries.
So the countdown has begun started for this historic visit of President Raisi and signing the document which will be a new horizon in the relations of Tehran and Moscow and a big earthquake in the region and it can be a milestone in all-out relation between the two neighboring countries which can have significant cooperation in the international and economic affairs.
