Iran and Russia signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership treaty on Friday, January 17 at the Kremlin during a meeting between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The deal has been under discussion for months and will replace existing bilateral agreements between the countries.
The treaty is a framework for a long term development of relations between the countries and upgrades their relations to “strategic partnership”. The treaty covers “practically all areas of cooperation” between the two nations, as Putin said during his meeting with Pezeshkian, including defense, energy, technological exchange, finances, transport, culture, and science.
The treaty would be valid for 20 years from the date of rectification by their respective parliaments.
According to TASS, during the meeting at the Kremlin, Putin, and Pezeshkian discussed various global, regional, and bilateral issues including developments in the Middle East and the South Caucasus, and Iran’s nuclear program. They also discussed ways to expand their mutual trade, investment and cooperation in the field of transport, logistics and humanitarian aid.
Termed as a comprehensive strategic cooperation, the new treaty would replace their existing bilateral document on the foundations of relations and principles of cooperation signed in Moscow in 2001, Sputnik reported.
The treaty accommodates existing cooperation in transport, trade, and nuclear energy while opening room for newer collaborations. Russia and Iran are already collaborating on a North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC), a multi-billion dollar project which combines ship, rail, and road routes to link countries from India to Europe through Iran, Central Asia, and Russia covering over 7,200 kilometers. The completion of the project is part of the new agreement.
The treaty also talks about increasing their trade and economic relations in the coming years. Russia and Iran had an estimated bilateral trade worth USD 4 billion in 2024 recording a 15% growth year after year. Most of this trade, around 96%, is conducted using their national currencies, TASS reported.
Putin, however, noted during the press conference after the signing of the treaty, that the current level of bilateral trade does not correspond to the size of the two economies and that the goal of the treaty is to enhance it to its full potential.
The shift to national currencies for bilateral trade has been a deliberate move adopted by both countries to bypass the effects of sanctions and to break the dependence on the US dollar. It has also been a stated policy of BRICS of which both the countries are now full members.
Russia and Iran also have existing cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, with Russia supplying fuel and technological know-how for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant which is under construction as per an agreement signed in 2014. According to Sputnik, the first unit of Bushehr is already operational while work on the second and third units are in progress.
Not a military alliance
Though the treaty deals with their mutual defense concerns, it is not a defense alliance targeting any specific third country, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed in an article in Sputnik on Wednesday. He also claimed that the agreement is primarily an attempt to create a more just and balanced world.
“Contrary to the claims of some media outlets, this interaction is not aimed at threatening, but at strengthening common security and protecting human values,” Araghchi said.
Araghchi was addressing western media outlets such as CNN which have been speculating about the real objective of the deal and even claiming it to be directly targeted at the US and its allies in Europe. CNN also termed it an attempt by the Iranians to consolidate their security due to the unpredictable nature of the policies of incoming US President Donald Trump and threats from Israel in recent months.
Dismissing those claims, the two countries have maintained that the treaty was under negotiations for months now and has nothing to do with Trump’s election. Russia also claimed the treaty is part of its larger attempts to create a multipolar world politics against the hegemonic practices of certain countries.
“Close coordination between Russia and Iran on the international stage is based on the common approaches, including commitment to building a just multipolar world order based on universally recognized principles of international law” such as “equal and indivisible security, mutually beneficial and equitable cooperation between countries, the desire to pursue an independent foreign policy and determination to resist external pressure and the practice of illegitimate sanctions,” the Russian presidential press service said in a statement quoted by TASS.
Experts believe the treaty would help both countries resist the unilateral sanctions imposed on them by the US and its western allies. Russia is subjected to various sanctions over the war in Ukraine, whereas Iran is subjected to sanctions over its nuclear program. Iran has also been subjected to sanctions over the allegations of supplying missiles to Russia to be used in Ukraine, which Iran has denied repeatedly.
These sanctions have impacted the external trade and economy of both countries. Their hope is that growing collaboration will help mitigate some of the issues created by those sanctions which both Iran and Russia maintain are illegal.
Talking about the significance of the treaty Pezeshkian said that “this will give a great impetus to the development of bilateral relations and…become a solid foundation for further movement forward.” He also noted, later during the press conference, that the treaty is a foundation to achieve our common goals of multilateralism in global politics.