Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in a meeting with outgoing Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanayee described Tehran as Moscow’s strategic partner.
“Iran has turned into Russia’s strategic partner and good efforts have been made in the past 6 years in line with mutual and regional cooperation, and relations between Iran and China have developed in all fields,” Novak said in the meeting in Moscow.
He noted that good developments have been made in economic relations between the two countries, saying that implementation of big projects in the areas of energy, transportation and Free Trade Zone agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union can be useful and valuable.
Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian and Novak in a meeting in Moscow in November exchanged views on economic cooperation, especially in the field of energy and renewable energies.
During the meeting in the Russian capital, the Iranian and Russian ministers discussed agreements reached at the 15th Iran-Russia Joint Economic Commission in the fields of agriculture, banking, energy, industry, and technology.
Ardakanian’s visit to Russia was aimed at operationalizing a $5 billion credit line for infrastructure projects.
The idea for Russia to provide the loan to Iran was first conceived in 2015, but the final documents were signed only in September this year.
The majority of the loan will reportedly be used for conducting several joint power plant projects in Iran. Part of it will also be used to finance building 2,000 train carriages for use in inner-city transportation as well as building a railway between Zahedan in the southeast to Birjand in Northeastern Iran.
Fars News Agency