On Friday, Colonel Soleiman Adeli said that the Joshan (Shield) and the Peykan (Arrow) will stay in the port of Astrakhan for four days.
This was the first time that Iranian Navy vessels have been dispatched to Russia, and their mission is to consolidate maritime relations between Tehran and Moscow and promote peace and friendship among all the five nations on the shores of the Caspian Sea, he stated.
The crews of the two Iranian warships will meet Russian sailors in order to share expertise and exchange views with them, Adeli added.
The Iranian military attaché to Moscow also said that the presence of the Iranian flotilla in the Russian port city of Astrakhan attests to the high level of trust between the two countries and the strength of Iran-Russia political ties.
“Iran and Russia both want Caspian Sea littoral states to maintain the security of the body of water without any interference from extra-regional powers. They regard the presence of outsiders in the sea as a source of tension and division,” Adeli stated.
On June 26, the deputy commander of the Iranian Navy, Rear Admiral Siavash Jarreh, said, “Two missile-launching warships, which were manufactured by Iranian specialists and joined the naval forces in 2003 and 2006, have been dispatched for the first time to the Russian port of Astrakhan in the form of a naval group.”
On April 21, a group of Russian Navy warships docked at the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas after a long journey from the Pacific Ocean.
The Russian naval group -- the Admiral Panteleyev, an anti-submarine destroyer, and two logistic battleships, the Peresvet and the Admiral Nevelskoi, with a combined crew of 712 -- docked at the Iranian port on the coast of the Persian Gulf with the goal of strengthening relations between Tehran and Moscow and promoting bilateral naval cooperation in order to maintain maritime security.
In recent years, the Iranian Navy has increased its presence in international waters to protect naval routes and provide security for merchant vessels and tankers. But the Iranian Navy has never taken an aggressive stance on the open seas.
MNA
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Publish Date: 29 June 2013 - 08:50
TEHRAN, Jun. 29 (MNA) – Iran’s military attaché to Moscow says the two vessels of the Iranian Navy dispatched to the Russian port city of Astrakhan carry the message of peace and friendship from the Iranian nation to Russia and other littoral states of the Caspian Sea.