Iran eyes expanding ties with Russia as a way out of the US pressures

Tabnak – As the US pressures mounts on Iran to force the country leave its long-standing positions on the regional and nuclear issues, Tehran eyes expanding ties with Moscow as a way out of the current pressures. The two countries are trying to develop ties in various economic and political spheres.

In this vein, high ranking officials from Iran and Russia held the third meeting of a working group on economic cooperation between the Islamic Republic’s northern provinces and Russia’s southern republics.

Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian and Russian Minister for North Caucasus Affairs Sergei Chebotarev attended the meeting, which was held in Tehran on Monday on the sidelines of a session of the Iran-Russia joint economic commission.

The deputy prime minister of the Russian Republic of Dagestan and eight other regional ministers of Russia’s southern republics, including economic ministers of North Ossetia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Chuvash, have participated in the meeting of the working group.

Last month, Ardakanian and his Russian counterpart, Alexander Novak, had agreed to hold the next meeting of the permanent intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation in mid-June.

As the co-chairmen of “the Russian-Iranian permanent intergovernmental commission” on trade and economic cooperation, the two ministers discussed preparations for the 15th session of the commission taking place in Tehran and Isfahan from June 16 to 18, according to a statement by the Russian Energy Ministry.

In November 2018, the ministers discussed joint projects, including the Sirik thermal power plant in Iran and the electrification of the Garmsar-Incheboron railway section.

According to Novak at the time, ten working groups were operating in the framework of the intergovernmental commission, including groups for the fields of transport, finance and energy.

Fifty joint documents have been signed in recent years in order to create a solid legal and regulatory basis for bilateral cooperation, he said.

Meanwhile, it is reported that Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani will go to Russia on Tuesday to take part in the 10th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues in Ufa.

Shamkhani is going to attend the summit of security officials at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev. The senior Iranian official is planned to deliver a speech to the forum in Russia’s southern city of Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan.

According to Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Venediktov, a high-ranking official from the US National Security Council will be also taking part in the meeting.

Delegations from about a hundred of world nations are expected to take part in gathering, slated for June 18-20.

The forum has been held regularly by the Russian Security Council in one of the cities of Russia each year. The meetings have been previously held in the cities of Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Kazan, Ulan-Ude, Grozny, the Tver region, and twice in Sochi.