President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin held a meeting with President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian.
On the Russian side, the meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office – Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin, Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov, Energy Minister, Russian Co-Chair of the Permanent Russian-Iranian Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation Sergei Tsivilev, Director of the Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, Russian Co-Chair of the Joint Intergovernmental Russian-Iranian Commission on Military Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev, Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Kolychev, and Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, colleagues, friends,
I am delighted to see you, this time at the SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan. As you know, we take every opportunity to meet and touch base.
The friendly relations between Russia and Iran are developing steadily across all areas, to the letter and in the spirit of the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
As I have repeatedly said before, Russia is standing in full solidarity with the people of Iran. We admire your courage and resilience in your fight for your national interests. Please convey my regards and words of sincere support to Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei.
We welcomed the execution of the Iranian-American ceasefire memorandum in June. Unfortunately, the ceasefire proved to be unstable and too fragile. During this difficult period, we try to render the necessary support to you. We have discussed your needs with you and continue to provide the goods and commodities you require.
Despite the current military and political situation, we maintain the same dynamic in trade and economic relations and cooperation as last year, primarily thanks to the effective work of our intergovernmental commission that meets regularly and held its session quite recently.
The Free Trade Agreement between the EAEU and Iran is, in my opinion, a significant factor.
We also consider it a priority to expand humanitarian cooperation. Increasingly more Iranian students are choosing Russian education, which is great news. Many future physicians study in Russia. In the 2025–2026 academic year, the number of Iranian students in Russia reached almost 9,000, including 802 students with their tuitions funded from the Russian budget.
Mr President, we have many points to discuss. I am delighted to have this opportunity to meet with you and your team today.
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian (retranslated): I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the opportunity to meet with you and to review and discuss the agreements we have been working on together.
We are grateful to you for the stance you have adopted during the war, the conflicts, the US sanctions and all the rest. You have supported us at the UN and other international organisations. We appreciate this and are grateful to you.
Our relations are of a strategic nature. This is more than just “normal” relations. We believe – no, we are certain that thanks to this we can stand up against US bias and the rightless sanctions they are imposing on us. We are able to circumvent them and other unilateral restrictions within the SCO and other organisations, thereby developing cooperation at the multilateral level.
They have no right to impose sanctions, violate international law and act aggressively whenever they want. They have no legitimate rights to take such measures. They have killed our scientists, innocent schoolchildren and our commanders. Such actions may not be recognised and accepted in any framework. They talk about democracy and claim to respect human rights, but there is no justification for such actions.
We are confronting them from a position of strength, and there is an agreement, a memorandum between us and the United States. If the US returns to compliance with the commitments set out within this framework, we will act likewise and will comply with all these provisions. They may not impose wrong or illegal actions and words on us, and we have come here to fight against this unilateralism.
We support your stand on confronting this unilateralism, and we want to break out of the framework of this unilateralism.
I am confident that we will win. We are confident of this, and we reaffirm that we will stand our ground.
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