​Putin's visit to Iran: the parties give promises to each other - COMMENT

Baku. 25 November. REPORT.AZ/ III summit of the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries has completed.

In addition to the issues discussed at the summit, they mainly focused on the working visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Tehran and agreements reached with Iran.

During the visit the Russian leader met with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, the country's president, Hassan Rouhani, and other heads of states.

The last visit of Vladimir Putin to Iran was paid in 2007.

I would like to express our attitude to certain points of the visit.

First, let's start from the event itself. The summit began on November 21. It was attended by nine heads of state, including presidents of Bolivia, Russia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Iraq, the prime minister of Algeria. President of Turkmenistan attended the summit as a special guest. In addition, the event was attended by representatives of international organizations.

The participants discussed the global situation in the gas market and its prospects.

The forum was founded on 23 December 2008 in Moscow. Headquarters of the structure is located in the Qatari capital of Doha. The organization includes Bolivia, The United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Qatar, Iran and Russia. The Netherlands, Norway, Iraq, Oman and Peru are observer countries of the forum. Azerbaijan was granted the observer status at the Tehran summit.

The forum adopted a declaration. The document notes the importance of compliance of investments with the activities of participating countries and enhancing mutual cooperation.

By the way, presumably, 42% of the world's gas, 67% of resources, 38% of 'blue fuel' exported by pipeline and 85% of liquefied natural gas accounts for forum participating countries.

The next meeting is scheduled for 17 November 2016.

Already, we can assume that this event will not affect export of gas on an international scale and so on. Through its holding, Russia and Iran have shown devotion to each other and intention for closer mutual cooperation in the future.

Russian President went to Iran not with empty hands. As a gift, the Russian leader presented one of the ancient books of the Qur'an to the Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyid Ali Khamenei.

Putin expressed his intention to develop economic cooperation with Iran, and noted that the in the trade turnover between the two countries national currencies would be preferred. He also expressed his desire to provide Iran with a loan of 5 billion USD.

In addition, on the eve of a visit, Russia started discussing details of delivering S-300 missile systems to Iran.

As the Russian president noted, cooperation between Moscow and Tehran would be continued on 35 priority projects.

In addition, the European Economic Community will hold talks on creating a free economic zone with Iran.

According to the information, Iran will sell Russia 9 tons of 4-percent enriched uranium, and instead import 140 tons of uranium.

Due to the similarity of Moscow's and Tehran's approaches on Syria, all statements and steps made by the parties in this direction are very same.

In the future, Russia and Iran want to ensure the superiority of Bashar al-Assad in negotiations related to the situation in Syria.

This also includes the vast territory controlled by Assad's militants.

Russia's bombardment of ancestral territories of Turkmens in Syria and Iran's participation in these operations just confirm this.

Considering the fact that Russia is exposed to sanctions, strengthening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran would be even more noticeable. Iranian officials say that the country expects a large influx of investment since 2016. Would not Tehran cheat its ally Russia in this case? In fact, this issue really worries Moscow since Iran has long wished Vladimir Putin's visit to the country. The current visit of head of Kremlin during this hard time for Moscow in the region and the international arena, was aimed at obtaining a guarantee for the provision of international joint forces of resistance. In case Tehran gives this guarantee respectively to the present situation, the events can happen in two months may also affect the mutual relations.

Thus, the political situation in the region and in the international arena suggest that during Vladimir Putin's visit to the Islamic Republic, both sides gave some promises to each other.