MOSCOW — Iran and Russia are set to deepen their ties with a new comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, which will be signed during talks between their presidents in Moscow on Jan. 17, according to a statement by Iran's Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali. 

The pact, updating a 2001 treaty, will expand cooperation in areas such as defense, security, trade, energy and counterterrorism, according to officials from both nations. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei highlighted the agreement's focus on modernizing bilateral relations, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed hope it will unlock additional opportunities for collaboration.

The thorny path to strategic relationships

The expected treaty has undergone a long procedure of coordination. The possibility of updating the bilateral agreement was first discussed back in mid-2020, and in July 2022, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov expressed hope that a version of the treaty text, which had already been handed over to the Iranian side, would soon be agreed upon. But this is by no means a record in terms of the duration of bureaucratic wording reconciliation. A similar document, which Iran signed with China in March 2021, was discussed for five years after Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit to Tehran in 2016.