Russian Foreign Ministry says the 'CIS plus Iran' format could be worked out

Moscow is ready to discuss a new initiative

Russia is ready to discuss with its partners the creation of a cooperation format called 'CIS plus Iran', proposed by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. TASS was told this by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin. According to him, the idea of creating a 'CIS + 1' format has generated great interest in Moscow and, as far as can be judged, in the capitals of other Commonwealth states, as well as in the expert community.

Iran's first participation in a CIS summit

Pankin recalled that Pezeshkian became the first Iranian leader to be invited to a meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State, held on October 9 in Turkmenistan. According to the diplomat, Moscow was among the first to support Ashgabat's initiative and highly praised the Iranian president's participation in the summit. Thus, the statement about readiness to work out a new format logically continues the line of bringing Iran closer to the Commonwealth structures that began with this invitation.

The context of bilateral contacts

Pankin's statement came against the backdrop of recent Russian-Iranian contacts. At the end of October, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Masoud Pezeshkian in the Kremlin. Iran's Ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali reported that the talks were to focus on economic cooperation between Tehran and Moscow, energy security, geopolitics, and the international 'North — South' transport corridor. Earlier, Putin also stated that Russia remains a faithful friend of Iran.