Iran has proclaimed the pursuit of “all-out cooperation” with Russia as President Rouhani met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Rouhani and Putin held bilateral discussions during a summit in Baku which also included the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.
Iran’s English-language outlet Press TV declared that the two men “stressed the importance of accelerating the development of bilateral relations in all fields” and “said Tehran and Moscow need to make more efforts to speed up the development of all-out cooperation”.
The site avoided any reference to the Russian-Iranian defense of Syria’s President Bashar Assad in his 5 1/2-year conflict. Instead, it focused on economic prospects and general statement of “very good steps toward the expansion of relations”.
IRNA also limits itself to a brief description of the meeting to “review ways to enhance comprehensive cooperation”.
In contrast, Russia’s TASS devoted its summary to “counter-terrorism” in a quote from an agreed tripartite statement:
The sides resolutely condemn terrorists in all its manifestations. They stress the importance of bilateral and trilateral consultations for exchanging views on the situation and working out effective counter-terrorism measures.
And TASS specifically said that Rouhani upheld “cooperation in the settlement of the Syrian crisis” as an example of productive Iranian-Russian ties.
Agreement on Asia-Europe Trade Route
The centerpiece of the summit was a statement by the three Presidents promising a North-South Transit Corridor for trade between Europe and Southeast Asia.
The NSTC foresees a 7,200-km (4,475-mile) shipping, road, and rail route connecting India’s Mumbai to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, Baku in Azerbaijan, and Russia’s Astrakhan, Moscow, and St Petersburg and extending to northern Europe and Scandinavia.
The three presidents also agreed to cooperate on development of the natural gas industry and connection of electricity grids, and they spoke of the significance of close banking cooperation to attract investments and support technologies.