Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian held a press conference on Friday after concluding bilateral negotiations in the Russian capital. During the meeting, the two leaders signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty establishing a 20-year cooperation framework.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome once again to this Elisir English and we are going now to Russia as
00:11early today the President Vladimir Putin held a press conference with his Iranian counterpart
00:16Monsignor Peshykin after the signing of a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement
00:21among both nations. Let's listen.
00:36The ceremony is over. We begin the press conference of the President of the Russian
00:41Federation Vladimir Putin and the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Massoud Peshykin.
00:51Mr. President, friends, I'm happy to welcome to Moscow the President of the Islamic Republic
01:07of Iran, President Massoud Peshykin, with whom we have just completed substantive talks during
01:17his official visit, state visit to Russia. Our country attaches priority significance to
01:25strengthening strong and of respect for each other's interest, mutual assistance and support
01:34that are shown in practice and the multidimensional bilateral partnership is growing stronger and
01:44stronger with every year. We maintain intensive political dialogue. Last year,
01:49we held two meetings with President Peshykin, including during the break summit in Kazan.
01:57Our foreign ministries are in close contact and our security councils are in close contact.
02:03We promote cooperation between Russia and Iran in economic, social and cultural fields.
02:08We are coordinating along the various departments and agencies, our business circles
02:16and public representatives work closely and we also hold inter-parliamentary, inter-regional
02:24contacts. The ties between two of our countries are large-scale and mutually beneficial and we
02:31share the same view that we must not stop at what we have already accomplished and we need to
02:38bring our relations to the new level, to the new horizons. This is the idea behind this new treaty
02:46on comprehensive strategic partnership that we have just signed. It says ambitious goals and sets
02:52It says ambitious goals and sets goals for deepening bilateral cooperation
02:59in long term, in politics, in security, in trade, in investment, in humanitarian ties.
03:07This is a truly breakthrough document that is aimed at establishing necessary conditions for
03:13stable and sustainable development of cooperation between Russia and Iran, of development of the
03:19countries proper and of our shared Eurasian continent. The talks that we held with President
03:26of Iran were useful, were substantive and they were held in constructive and friendly key.
03:36We discussed the entire range of our bilateral agenda, we exchanged opinions on the regional
03:42and global affairs. During these talks, we looked into the trade and economic cooperation.
03:48Russia and Iran are significant partners in trade, finance, investment,
03:57and the dynamics of these relations is good. The trade grew by 15.5% over the last year
04:09and our countries almost fully switched to the national currencies and mutual settlements. We
04:16plan to build sustainable banking cooperation, we work to align our payment systems.
04:23In 2024, the share of transactions in rubles and Iranian rials exceeded 95%
04:33if we take into consideration all the trade transactions.
04:39And this effort will be facilitated by the free trade agreement that is going to come
04:46into force between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union. And I would also like to remind you
04:52that on December 26, 2024, by the decision of the higher council of the economic
05:01of Iran was attributed the status of an observer state in the Eurasian Economic Union. We see it
05:08as another step towards developing relations between Russia, Iran, and other member states
05:14of the Eurasian Economic Union. Another important field of cooperation between Russia and Iran
05:20is energy. We promote our joint flagship projects on building two new nuclear power plant units in
05:29Bashar. Its implementation will make a strong contribution towards strengthening energy
05:34security of Iran. It will give an additional impetus to the growth of the national economy.
05:40It will ensure Iranian households and industries with cheap and sustainable energy.
05:49We attach great significance to transport cooperation,
05:54cooperation in railways, transportation.
05:58And the North-South international corridor is also offering a lot of new opportunities.
06:05We continue talks regarding the railway bridge Tuscara as part of this international corridor.
06:12Implementation of this project could allow us to have seamless logistics between Belarus
06:20and Persian Gulf. We continue to develop cooperation in humanitarian field.
06:27We have inaugurated a cultural center, and we plan to hold Russia culture days in Iran.
06:33And we are going to have a lot of exhibitions, theater performances, and other
06:39events during these days. And I'm sure that the Iranian public will be happy to attend these
06:48events. We are also enhancing tourist exchanges, and we have direct flights between many Russian
06:55and Iranian cities, and a decision on the visa-free travels for the organized tourist groups
07:02that we have made back in 2023. And we also have visas for individual travelers, and we help Iran
07:12with personal training in Russian colleges. We have some 9,000 Iranian students,
07:19including that 600 of them received payments. Their education is paid by the state.
07:29And our commission on the trade cooperation is also working.
07:33Its next meeting is going to happen in the first part of this year in Moscow.
07:38We also looked into various foreign affairs matters during our talks. Positions of Russia's
07:46and Iran's are coinciding in a lot of them. Our countries firmly stand for the supremacy
07:53of international law, sovereignty of the states, non-interference in domestic affairs
07:58of sovereign states. We pursue an independent foreign policies, and we stand against
08:07any dictates or any interference from the outside or imposing legitimate sanctions.
08:12We coordinate our efforts on the key areas, on the key international tracks, including within the UN
08:20and the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. When discussing the latest
08:26developments in Syria, we emphasize that Russia has always been committed to the complex settlement
08:34approach with the respect for its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.
08:40And we are ready to continue to give every support to the Syrian people, to provide
08:47humanitarian assistance, and to launch full-format post-conflict recovery efforts.
08:55And the future of Syria must be decided by the Syrians via the inclusive dialogue.
09:05And we wish the Syrian people to overcome all the challenges
09:09caused by the current transitory period. We also discuss the Middle Eastern settlement matters
09:19and the ceasefire agreement that was reached,
09:24the prisoners and hostages that were held both by Israel and Palestine will be brought back
09:31to their families. And what's key, Gaza will receive medicine and food and fuel. We hope
09:40that it will help to alleviate the humanitarian situation and stabilization of the situation
09:45in Gaza. At the same time, we need to continue with the efforts on combating the threat of
09:51At the same time, we need to continue with the efforts on comprehensive settlement of
09:55the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the widely recognized international
10:01legal basis, which is the establishment of the independent Palestinian state that would coexist
10:07in peace and safety with Israel. We also discussed a topic of cooperation between Russia and Iran.
10:15In other areas, the interest of both our countries is in supporting peace and stability in the
10:20region. And the discussion on all these and other regional matters was quite useful in our view
10:32and was timely. And in conclusion, I would like to emphasize that we are satisfied with the outcomes
10:38of this round of talks, and I'm sure that the agreements that we have reached will help us
10:45to strengthen the entire range of the Russian-Iranian relations and ties, and it will
10:51also be facilitated by the interstate treaty that we have just signed. Thank you for the attention.
11:15In the name of God Almighty, dear colleagues, dear media representatives, Mr. President,
11:34I would like to thank you and to express our gratitude to the Russian people and the Russian
11:43government for the welcome extended to me and to my delegation. I hope that our bilateral contacts
11:52will continue, and we are going to witness, so to say, a wider opportunity, bigger opportunities
12:02to develop bilateral relations as part of the good neighborliness policy. Iran and both Iran
12:11and Russian Federation attaches great significance to this, and over the recent years, we had a lot
12:19of exchanges, delegation exchanges between our countries, and this is an ongoing process, and we
12:25are grateful to our counterparts in Russia for this. We will continue to develop our trade and
12:31economic relations. There are certain mechanisms. We decided to remove all the obstacles on the path
12:37of our relations. We reviewed all the matters that were on our agenda. We discussed the entire
12:47range of our relations in its full scope, and we decided that we need to go on working in this
12:56positive key, both bilaterally and also regionally and also globally. This comprehensive treaty that
13:04we have signed today will open up new opportunities, will start a new chapter in our relations,
13:11especially it goes for the trade and economic relations between Russia and Iran. I'm sure that
13:17this document is based on the best interests of our countries. It was drafted based on the best
13:22interests of our countries, and it will help us to prepare the foundation for our further cooperation.
13:30Russia and Iran are willing to remove those tiny obstacles on the path of our trade and
13:38economic relations as for the customs matters or banking and financial matters,
13:47and also as for our investment projects and visa-free regime between our countries.
13:54We discussed these matters, and under this treaty, we will have an opportunity to discuss
13:59these matters in the future as well. I would like to mention how important it is to obtain
14:06an observer status within the Eurasian Economic Union. We attach great significance to this
14:12because we can enhance the level of cooperation between our countries within this union,
14:19and we also share the same view in counter-terrorism and counter-extremism efforts.
14:25It's also one of the pillars of our future cooperation. We discussed
14:32our cooperation in South Caucasus, in Syria, in the Middle East, in Afghanistan,
14:40and I believe that certain changes that are happening in our region, considering the role
14:47of new institutions and organizations such as the BRICS and the SCO, it gives us new opportunities,
14:54it enhances the potential of cooperation between our countries to go on with our cooperation.
15:00Russia and Iran are actively participating in these new organizations, which is very
15:06important to all of us, and I would like to say once again that hostilities and war
15:12is not the right way to resolve issues, and we welcome the settlement, the political settlement
15:19of various issues between Russia and Ukraine. We have to respect each other, and the Western
15:26countries must not force others to be subdued by them, to follow their will. As for the airstrikes
15:35perpetrated by the Israeli regime against Lebanon and Syria, I believe that we share the view
15:43that we emphasize the importance of stopping such strikes, and we hope that the ceasefire agreement
15:52in the catastrophe would be put into practice truly. And in conclusion, I would like to thank
15:59my counterpart, Russian President, for hospitality, for having these good relations between
16:08two brotherly nations, two brotherly peoples, Russian and Iranian. Thank you very much.
16:21Representative of the Iranian TV news, good afternoon, Mr. President, President Putin,
16:32good afternoon, President Poteshkin. Considering that we are going to ask a question about this
16:40big treaty, I would like to ask esteemed presidents of the two countries to answer
16:45the following question. We all know that Iran and Russia, that we have deep cultural and social
16:55traditions. We are two large, strong countries in the region. We have vast opportunities.
17:02Both of us stand against a unipolar world. Both Russia and Iran stand for the new world order
17:10based on multipolarity, and we participate, we are both participants in such important
17:18organizations as SCO and the Eurasian Economic Union and BRICS. Considering all these shared
17:23approaches, we still see that our bilateral relations, especially in economy and trade,
17:30do not correspond to our relations in the field of politics. So the question is,
17:37what are the prospects of our relations considering the signing of this treaty today
17:44in the future? So what we can hope for, what we can count on, what will happen in the future
17:51considering the signing of this new treaty? Thank you.
18:00Strengthening the legal framework will obviously create better conditions to resolve various
18:08matters of bilateral cooperation in all the fields across the board.
18:12One of the most important things for us is the trade and economic cooperation between our
18:17countries. As we have already said when we spoke both in the wider format and
18:25a narrower format, we discussed the relations between Russia and some of our other neighbours.
18:34With the countries with smaller potential, both economy-wise and with smaller populations,
18:41we have much bigger trade turnover. And with such a big country as Iran, 85 million of population,
18:51the level of trade and economic ties, the volume of trade and economic cooperation does not
18:57correspond to our potential. It's not up to our potential. And the idea of the treaty that we
19:02signed today is in establishing new additional conditions, new basic conditions to develop trade
19:09and economic ties between our countries. To put it in simpler terms, we need to remove red tape,
19:19and we need to make more practical steps. And that's why we have gotten together to discuss
19:30the financial matters and to discuss how we can expedite the resolution of various logistical
19:38matters that have to do with customs clearance, and so on and so forth. We discussed
19:47issues in energy, and my counterpart, Mr President, and I also mentioned that Iran
19:52is expanding its cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union. All these things taken together
19:59will establish good conditions to make good, strong steps forward.
20:05We have good projects in all the fields that I've just mentioned, and I really hope that by
20:09working together, and we have an intergovernmental commission working on this, we will continue to
20:17move forward. I have no doubts in this regard. And any obstacles, whatever obstacles, whatever
20:24challenges we faced created by external forces, we are able to overcome these challenges, and I'm
20:32sure that that's how it will be. Thank you.
20:44As for the prospects of our cooperation, considering the treaty, this big treaty that
20:49we've signed, we are convinced that with the first day, very first days after I was elected,
20:57I kept saying that the first important step for my government is to strengthen our relations with
21:04neighboring countries and to expand the potential for the further cooperation. Especially, I meant
21:12the Russian Federation when I said that as well, because it's a big country that we have really
21:18good political relations with, and it is very important for us, both regionally and globally,
21:26to strengthen our bilateral relations in all the fields across the board. We needed
21:38to strengthen this new legal framework, to review and strengthen it. What can we do
21:46in the future? Well, first, we needed to come up with a new legal mechanism to
21:53update the treaty. But my counterpart, Mr. President, is saying cooperation in research,
22:00in investment, in education, we have very good projects, we
22:09have good commissions, and working group, and task forces. And the decision was made
22:15going forward to make sure that all these working groups and commissions
22:20had a new legal framework to use it as a foundation, as a basis to expand
22:27our cooperation, cooperation between our countries. And it's part of our shared policy to
22:35ensure the security in the region, to fight against the unipolar world order. And we are
22:42convinced that in our region, we can cooperate without any influence from the outside, without
22:47any external actors, without any extra-regional actors. And Russia and our neighbors have vast
22:58potential and need to any advice from across the ocean. And I'm very glad to be here today,
23:04and I'm sure that we have great prospects. Thank you very much.
23:08We were watching images from Russia, where the President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian
23:18counterpart, Massoud Rajavi, signed a strategic partnership agreement.
23:23Stay tuned for more updates on these and other topics in our coming news brief.