Putin and Qalibaf met in St. Petersburg on the sidelines of the 10th Parliamentary Forum of BRICS on Thursday, the first day of the two-day event by the bloc of the world’s major emerging economies. Iran became an official member of BRICS in January this year.
The Russian president expressed happiness on Iran’s membership at the bloc, saying that his country had supported the Islamic Republic’s accession.
Putin also hailed developing ties between Tehran and Moscow, and stressed that their cooperation will continue to grow under the upcoming Iranian administration led by president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian.
“Presidential elections were held in your country. I am hopeful and have no doubt that relations between Iran and the Russian Federation will be developing”, Putin said, adding that Tehran and Moscow will be boosting their ties as they did so under the late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi.
He also said that Chairperson of Russia’s State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin will head a delegation to Iran to take part in the president-elect’s inauguration ceremony set to take place on July 30.
Earlier on Thursday, Qalibaf and Volodin also met on the sidelines of the BRICS forum.
The Iranian speaker is heading a parliamentary delegation to the Russian city of St. Petersburg, with the aim of using BRICS capacities for financial and trade interactions amid Western-imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
BRICS was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa joined the group four years later. BRICS seeks alternatives to existing Western-dominated world policies including those on economy, which the bloc sees as unilateral.
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