“Iran and Russia have developed relations in all areas and this trend will progress forward with the strong will and determination of the officials of the two countries,” said Ali Akbar Velayati, the Head of the Strategic Research Center of Iranian Expediency Council, on Sunday.
The Iranian official, who also acts as a senior aide to Iranian Leader, made the remarks while meeting with a visiting delegation of professors and researchers from Russian Valdai Discussion Club.
“This meeting is of high importance for us. We have met with our Russian friends from many different delegations in the past but this meeting with people from Valdai Discussion Club is opportune occasion,” said Mr. Velayati.
“We have always had relations with Russian friends and before that Soviet ones. This group was established in 2004 and this is their first visit to Tehran,” added the veteran diplomat who acted as Iran’s foreign minister for 16 years between 1981 and 1997.
Also the head of the Russian delegation, in this meeting, for his part, voiced content with this meeting and added, “The comments you made about this meeting, explicitly showed that you are fully aware of the background of relations much better than us.”
“We hope that this meeting play a great role in strengthening the bilateral relations between Iran and Russia. Before this meeting, we had another meeting with Foreign minister Zarif and good talks were exchanged there,” said Andrey Bystritskiy, the Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club.
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