Moscow, SAEDNEWS, Feb. 9: Qalibaf made the remarks in a meeting with Chairwoman of the Federation Council of Russia Valentina Matviyenko in Moscow on Tuesday.
He referred to his visit to Russia and the message of the Iranian Supreme Leader delivered by him to the Russian officials, and said, "Conveying the message of the Iranian Leader to Mr. Putin has given a special feature to this trip."
"This important message is about the region and the world powers, and it implies that the bilateral relations between Iran and Russia will be a strategic, deep and lasting one for several decades, and what is meant is that the agreements and decisions between the two countries will be within the framework of 20-50-year agreements," Qalibaf noted.
"Political change in countries with a spirit of hegemony and unilateralism will never affect the deep relations between Iran and Russia, and this is a continuous strategic relationship," he stressed.
"It is very natural that we should develop economic, political, cultural, energy, transport, scientific and technological, defense and security cooperation for such deep and continuous relations," Qalibaf said.
"Investment of the two countries in various economic fields, specially with the priority of energy production in different sectors, is one of the issues of mutual interest between both countries," he added.
Matviyenko, for her part, referred to the first official visit of Qalibaf as the Iranian speaker to Russia, and said, "This trip is a confirmation of efforts of Iran and the Parliament of the Islamic Republic to develop relations between Tehran and Moscow."
"We believe that this important trip will start a serious momentum in the relations between the two countries," she said.
"Iran is one of our old and close partners and one of the largest friendship groups in the Council of the Russian Federation is the friendship group of Iran," Matviyenko highlighted, adding, "We are interested in expanding multilateral relations regardless of what is happening in the world."
She underlined promotion of cooperation in the field of power plants and energy, and said, "We should strengthen cooperation of parliaments of the two countries in international forums."
Matviyenko also stressed the need to strengthen cooperation of the provincial assemblies in the parliaments of the two countries, saying, "It is necessary to strengthen the legal infrastructure of the relations between the two countries by drafting and approving the documents of cooperation in the parliaments of the two countries, including in the scientific and academic fields."
She also stressed Russia's support for the removal of sanctions against Iran.
Qalibaf arrived in the Russian capital Moscow on Sunday at the official invitation of Russia’s State Duma at the head of a high-ranking parliamentary delegation to discuss bilateral ties and issues of mutual concerns.
He is also scheduled to meet with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Qalibaf had said on Monday that the Leader’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin stresses the strong and strategic relations with Moscow regardless of different political changes in the world.
“The most important issue in this trip was the message of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution to the President of Russia, Mr. Putin, and the message emphasizes the strong, strategic and lasting relations between Iran and Russia, and it stresses that no political change in the world and unilateral views can affect these ties,” Qalibaf told reporters after a meeting with Chairman of Russia's State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin in Moscow in which he submitted Ayatollah Khamenei’s message to Putin.
He explained that during his meeting with Volodin, regional and global issues, bilateral relations and issues of common interest were discussed, adding that there are abundant and common formats that should be developed with new structures and strengthening the old structures in the field of economic, cultural, technical, energy, industrial, tourism, economic, agricultural, scientific and academic issues.
Qalibaf underscored that Iran and Russia have a lot in common on regional issues and peace in the region which requires new decisions and new structures, and added, “Tehran and Moscow also have common issues on regional and global security and peace and the fight against oppressive sanctions against the two countries.”
He also said that in the meeting, it was agreed to hold the third joint high commission meeting of the Iranian and Russian parliaments in the spring (Source: Fars News).
Iran Parliament Speaker Visits Moscow to Deliver Supreme Leader's Historic Letter to Putin
