Russian President Vladimir Putin will be in Tehran on Tuesday. The Russian head of state will attend three rounds of bilateral talks and a summit of the Troika of countries - guarantors of a Syrian settlement.
Meetings with Iranian leaders
According to Yuri Ushakov, Russian presidential aide, Putin will arrive in Tehran in the middle of the day. He will start the visit with a meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Then he is scheduled to talk with Iran's spiritual leader Ali Khamenei. The Kremlin representative called Iran an important partner of Russia because the relations between the countries are friendly, have a long history and are developing very effectively in a wide range of areas. Ushakov noted that Moscow and Tehran have plans to take bilateral cooperation to a new level, the level of strategic partnership, so a new interstate treaty is being prepared.
The issue of stepping up Russian-Iranian cooperation in the economic sphere is especially relevant in light of the tightening of Western sanctions against Russia and the prospect of signing a permanent agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union on a free trade zone in 2022, which should replace the interim treaty.
Negotiations on the nuclear deal remain an important issue, with both Russia and the Islamic Republic advocating the resumption of the agreement in its original form. At the meetings of the Russian leader with the leaders of Iran it is expected to exchange views on the main aspects of bilateral cooperation, as well as on international and regional security, including the current situation around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program (JCPOA).
Putin and Erdogan talks
Putin will continue his series of bilateral meetings with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to Ushakov, the presidents are going to "discuss key issues of Russian-Turkish cooperation, the implementation of flagship projects in the trade and economic sphere, as well as substantially consider a number of international topics, including the situation around Ukraine and the issue of the export of Ukrainian grain." On the morning of July 19 in Tehran, representatives of Russia and Turkey will hold special consultations on economic issues, among which is the topic of settlements in national currencies.
Erdogan plans to focus on a comprehensive discussion of bilateral relations, prospects for resolving the Ukrainian crisis and setting up a coordination center in Istanbul to oversee the supply of agricultural products by the Black Sea during his meeting with Russia's head of state. The issue of forming a grain corridor was discussed in Istanbul on July 13 by the military delegations of Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and representatives of the United Nations. According to Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, a new meeting of the "four" may take place this week, and a final document on the establishment of the center and the beginning of grain exports may be signed.
The talks are also expected to touch upon a possible visit to Turkey by the Russian president, who has had an invitation from Erdogan to visit Ankara since January. Earlier, it was reported that there are no exact dates for the visit to Turkey.
The two leaders will also discuss the situation in Syria in light of Turkey's plans to carry out a new military operation in northern Turkey against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its Syrian branch, the People's Self-Defense Forces (SDF). The sides also plan to discuss normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia, the situation in the Caucasus region and other regional and international issues.
Ushakov confirmed that Turkey's plans to conduct a new operation in northern Syria against Kurdish formations will be discussed by the presidents.
"Russia's principled position is that we oppose any action that violates the basic principle of the Syrian settlement, which is enshrined in the relevant [UN Security Council] resolutions and in the decisions of the Astana format - that is respect for the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria," the Kremlin representative pointed out.
Troika Summit
In the afternoon, Tehran will host a meeting of the heads of states - guarantors of the Astana process for the facilitation of the Syrian settlement. Negotiations of the presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey were planned to be held in the Islamic republic back in 2020. But the event was repeatedly postponed because of the pandemic. The possibility of reducing the format to a videoconference was repeatedly raised. However, as Russian Ambassador to Tehran Levan Dzhagaryan noted in an interview with TASS, "videoconferencing is good, but nothing can replace personal meetings, which are more effective and have a more trusting character". Ushakov agrees with him, considering that "it is more logical and expedient to discuss such sensitive issues as the Syrian settlement in person".
"The Astana format has proven and continues to prove its effectiveness, and is probably the only international tool that can have a positive real impact on the situation in Syria," the Kremlin spokesman said. He noted that "as of today, a stable cessation of hostilities has been maintained on a large part of the Syrian territory, thanks largely to the efforts and joint work of Russia, Iran and Turkey the level of violence has been reduced, the main pockets of ISIS (former name of IS, banned in Russia - TASS) have been defeated and the potential of other terrorist groups and their accomplices has been significantly undermined, the government control over most of the country has been restored".
Ushakov said that the presidents of the three countries "will discuss a set of joint measures in order to achieve a final and long-term settlement in Syria." He said that "they will pay special attention to normalizing the situation in the regions of Idlib and Trans-Euphrates, which are not controlled by the Syrian government. The Kremlin representative emphasized that the US is still destabilizing the situation in Trans-Euphrates, encouraging separatism and supplying weapons to Kurdish quasi-states.
Among the topics of the summit, the Russian presidential aide named the humanitarian problems related to Syria. "The socio-economic situation in Syria is extremely difficult, and the illegal unilateral Western sanctions against Damascus have had a serious negative impact," the Kremlin spokesman stated. "The US and its allies continue to politicize the issue of humanitarian aid to Syria, for the past year they have still not fulfilled their commitments to support projects of early restoration of basic social and economic infrastructure in Syria as well as mitigation of sanctions, although all relevant understandings were reached a year ago and fixed in UN Security Council resolution 2585 on cross-border mechanism," noted the Kremlin representative. Ushakov stressed that Russia, in another compromise, supported Security Council resolution 2642 on July 12 to extend the cross-border mechanism for six months in order to give the parties one more chance to fulfill their obligations. "We are against any other extensions in this regard, and next time our position will already be expressed more categorically," the Russian leader's aide pointed out, adding that Moscow considers the cross-border mechanism a temporary and emergency measure that should be rolled back because it violates international humanitarian law and Syrian sovereignty itself.
Ushakov promised that the presidents of the three countries will make press statements at the end of the summit. They are also planning to adopt a joint statement.
An aide to the Russian head of state suggests that Putin will return to Moscow on Wednesday night.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS