Russia and Iran are interested in signing an agreement on bilateral relations as soon as possible, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday after talks with his visiting Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, TASS reports.
"The work on a new, big interstate agreement initiated by the Iranian side continues. We expressed mutual interest in signing this basic document as soon as possible," he said. "It will reflect the current state of and prospects for the development of the entire spectrum of the Russian-Iranian relations and, naturally, it will reiterate the principles of our cooperation on the international arena."
According to Lavrov, the sides also discussed possibilities for the development of cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. "We discussed ways of the further expansion of our comprehensive cooperation in line with the agreements that were reached by Presidents [Vladimir] Putin and [Ebrahim] Raisi during the Iranian leader’s visit to Moscow on January 19-20," he said.
Apart from that, in his words, Moscow welcomes Iran’s decision to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. "Tehran plays a major role in Eurasia and has been cooperating with the Shanghai [Cooperation] Organization for a long time. Now we bring this cooperation to a new level," Lavrov added.