Iran, Russia stress development of strategic partnership

TEHRAN, Nov. 29 (MNA) – In a conference held in Moscow on Tuesday, Iranian and Russian officials underlined the importance of developing strategic cooperation between the two countries. While attending a conference on “Russia and Iran: Mutually beneficial partnership or ‘friendship against’?” conference in Moscow, Deputy Director of Russian Foreign Ministry's Second Department on Asian countries Konstantin Alekseyev called for a mutual endeavor for expansion of ties with Iran in political, economic and industrial fields. He referred to Tehran and Moscow as having been targeted with sanctions imposed by the Western countries and expressed hope that the two countries’ cooperation could help overcome the adverse consequences of sanctions. Former Russian FM and Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Igor Ivanov also expressed satisfaction for the development of bilateral cooperation between Iran and Russia and said all conditions were ‘favorable’ for expansion of ties between the two countries. He also maintained that such conferences would be regularly held in Tehran and Moscow in future. Iranian Deputy FM Hadi Soleimanpour, for his part, deemed it necessary for the two countries’ development of cooperation with regard to the interests of the two countries as well as the regional and the international situation. During this conference attended by a number of Iranian researchers from department of politics and international studies, University of Tehran, Center for Strategic Research, and Institute of Iran and Eurasia Studies (IRAS), ways to develop a strategic partnership with Russia and Iran at global, regional and bilateral levels were discussed. Earlier in November, Russia and Iran signed several agreements on the construction of two nuclear reactor units at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, with the possibility of building six more in the future. The two sides also inked a memorandum of understanding for the expansion of cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy.