© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

On July 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a working visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) to engage in a tripartite meeting of the guarantor states of the Astana process to facilitate the Syrian settlement. In Tehran, the Russian leader had talks with Presidents of Iran and Turkiye Ibrahim Raisi and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and also visited Ali Khamenei, the Islamic republic’s supreme leader. According to Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, the negotiations focused on trade and economic ties with Iran and Turkey, as well as other issues of bilateral and regional cooperation. And still, the Russian-Iranian negotiations topped the agenda.

Vladimir Putin's current visit to Iran has become fifth in a row since 2000. Is this a lot? Not really, if we count from the moment when Putin became President of Russia. But considering the dates of his visits we get an entirely different picture. The current trip turns out to be fourth over the past seven years. Putin first came to Tehran in 2007, but regular visits began only in 2015. All of them were unofficial working trips, though. However, this one has clearly stolen the spotlight from US President Joe Biden’s good-for-nothing tour of the Middle East in terms of significance and media scrutiny.

This is because both Russia and Iran have been playing an increasingly prominent and significant part in the global affairs. Suffice it to say that Moscow, along with Beijing, is now opposing the US-led collective West to build a new multipolar world. In turn, Iran is getting actively involved in the multilateral format of cooperation with Russia – it seeks membership in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to become its full-fledged member this fall. Iran's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is a little way down the road, either. In fact, we are talking about full-fledged strategic cooperation between Moscow and Tehran both bilaterally and globally.

Notably, Russia and Iran have a huge interaction potential, from trade to the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) connecting the Baltic with Iranian ports in the Arabian Sea – for which read linking Europe and India across the Caspian Sea. One should not be thinking it has lost its relevance over Russia's deteriorated relations with Europe, as trade opportunities are still huge between the North and the South. Even if Europe's sanctions war against Moscow proves protracted, the corridor will be needed for Russia's trade with the Middle East and Asia. Iran's 43-year-long experience in the fight against Western sanctions may come in handy. So, the Russian-Iranian relations have a promising outlook.

It makes perfect sense in this regard that the sides are going to enter into a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement for 20 or 25 years. It may be signed as early as this year already – in January, Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi handed over the relevant draft treaty to Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and in June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov brought the Russian version to Tehran. The two countries won’t be military allies (though military-technical cooperation gets complemented by a number of joint exercises), but will develop further ties, as evidenced by the current visit of President Putin to Iran.

Let’s emphasize that Russia's cooperation with Iran is hardly a sporadic, but a long-term policy of Moscow. Dmitry Peskov called it future-oriented, with a reputable past and a substantial present. "Cooperation with Iran is not sporadic in its nature, it has been our long-term foreign policy course. We have long been seeking economic ties with Iran, and those have a very long history and an established foundation," he told Russian broadcaster Channel One. "And it can only be for mutual benefit… Iran is our friend and partner, and we do appreciate our relations," Peskov added.

In turn, Iran hopes that Vladimir Putin's current visit to Tehran will become a key pillar of bilateral relations, President Ibrahim Raisi said. "I hope that your official visit to Iran will be a turning point in terms of relations between the countries on issues of both regional and international agenda," he said at the very beginning of his talks with the Russian President.

In response, Vladimir Putin pointed to the successes in bilateral trade and solving regional problems. "We can boast of record figures in terms of trade growth. We are strengthening our cooperation on international security, making a significant contribution to the settlement of the Syrian crisis," the Russian leader said.

Indeed, since Ibrahim Raisi’s administration took the helm in August 2021, the republic’s trade turnover with Russia has reached $4 billion. The parties agreed to puff it up to $10 billion, though pundits say the figure may double by 2022 to reach $20 billion.

It is worth noting that rapprochement with Iran meets Russia's strategic interests, since apart from being an heir of great civilizations dating back five millennia and an 86-million neighbor, the republic is one of the world’s most stout-hearted countries. Iran is truly sovereign, capable of running its course, searching for its own forms of state and society organization, advancing national interests and defying any external pressure. In this regard, the IRI is comparable to present-day Russia that is looking for its own development path and forms of confronting the collective West.

For this very reason, Vladimir Putin's fifth meeting with Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei ˗ a closed-doors one, we note ˗ was not just a conversation between two statesmen of much influence and expertise, but a meeting of two people having plenty to talk about, except for global issues and challenges. If two countries like Russia and Iran go their own spiritual and national way, they will definitely stick together. Each will become stronger in both responding to challenges from the West and jointly building a new world, where traditionalist peoples would get an opportunity to live their own way without any impending Western "rules". Which is pivotal in today's complex world.