Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is going to visit Moscow on Jan. 17, the Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti reported on Dec. 26, citing Kazem Jalali, the Iranian Ambassador to Russia.
Ties between Moscow and Tehran have deepened since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022. Iran has provided Russia with thousands of Shahed drones used in attacks against Ukraine as well as close-range ballistic missiles.
Pezeshkian will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Jan. 17, Jalali said. During the visit, the two leaders are expected to sign an agreement on cooperation between Tehran and Moscow.
The new bilateral agreement is intended to replace the 20-year strategic one signed between the two countries in 2001 and extended in 2020.
Putin and Pezeshkian first met on Oct. 11 in Turkmenistan. The meeting occurred during an international forum to which the leaders of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Tajikistan were invited, among others.
Following another meeting between Putin and Pezeshkian in Kazan in late October, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the new agreements must "formalize the parties' commitment to close defense cooperation and interaction in the interests of regional and global peace and security."
Pezeshkian won Iran's runoff election in July earlier this year, defeating hard-liner Saeed Jalili. Internationally recognized monitors were not present to verify the results or guarantee the election's fairness.
The runoff election was triggered by the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister in a helicopter crash in May.
Oleg Sukhov
(Updated: )
