Ali Ahmadian, the new Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) held a meeting with the visiting Aide to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Igor Levitin, in Tehran on Tuesday.
Ahmadian stressed the special attention of the 13th government in Iran under President Ebrahim Raeisi to the development of relations with neighbors, especially Russia, and also supporting regional initiatives and bilateral and multilateral partners as an effective approach that can secure the national interests of the two countries.
The SNSC secretary also pointed to global developments and their impact on geopolitical and geo-strategic equations, adding that, "These circumstances require the two countries to operationalize all routes of the North-South Corridor, the western route, the sea route and the eastern route as soon as possible."
Ahmadian also said that "Speeding up the implementation of the agreed projects, including the completion of the North-South Corridor and signed memorandums in the field of oil and gas, is one of the most important priorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the field of bilateral cooperation with Russia."
The SNSC secretary described the agreement on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway, which was signed earlier this year in May in the presence of the presidents of the two countries, as a big step in consolidating economic relations and contributing to the dynamism of the country's economy."
Putin's Aide, for his part, congratulated Ahmadian on his appointment as the SNSC secretary and presented a report on the latest developments related to commercial relations, banking and joint economic projects between the two nations.
Expressing his satisfaction with the progress in the implementation of the agreements between the two countries, Levitin said, "The government of the Russian Federation will use its utmost efforts to implement the agreements signed between the two countries as quickly as possible and remove the existing barriers to their implementation."
He considered the broad cooperation between Tehran and Moscow in recent years as a result of the will of the leaders of the two countries and stated that the scheduled implementation of the agreements between the presidents of the two countries, including in the fields of transportation and transit, energy, medicine and science, will not only be a significant leap in enhancing the level of economic relations between the two countries but also will have a very positive and important impact on the development of the transit and commercial potentials and capabilities in the region."
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