Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the signing of a strategic partnership agreement involving closer defense cooperation.
Pezeshkian, on his first visit to the Kremlin since winning the presidency in July 2024, will hold talks with Putin focusing on bilateral relations and international issues before signing the agreement.
Ahead of the negotiations, the Kremlin praised the increasingly close relationship with Tehran.
"Iran is an important partner for us and we are developing multiphase cooperation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Moscow has been in closer ties with Iran and other hostile US countries, such as North Korea, since the beginning of Ukraine's war, and has had strategic agreements with Pyongyang and its close Belarus allies, as well as a strategic partnership agreement with China.
The 20-year agreement between Russia and Iran is not expected to include a joint defense clause as agreed with Minsk and Pyongyang.
Moscow and Tehran say their closer ties are not aimed at harming other countries.
Russia has used many Iranian drones during the war in Ukraine and the United States accused Tehran in September of sending short-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine. Tehran denies supplying drones or missiles.
The Kremlin declined to confirm it received Iranian missiles, but acknowledged its cooperation with Iran included the most sensitive field.
Pezeshkian's visit to Moscow also came at a time when Iran's influence in the Middle East weakened after Islamic rebels seized power in Syria, expelling its ally Bashar al-Assad, and after Iran-backed Hamas was attacked by Israel in Gaza.
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