Iran and Russia Sign a Military Cooperation Agreement

Last Tuesday, January 20, Russia and Iran signed a military cooperation agreement during Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu’s visit to Iran.

Shoigu met with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Dehghan, in the capital of Tehran in order to discuss the terms of the agreement and hold an official signing ceremony. It was the first time in 15 years that Iran has received a visit from a Russian defense minister, though Shoigu and Dehghan had met previously on the sidelines of the third conference on international security in Moscow last May. Shoigu commented that this new military cooperation pact would be the next step in strengthening relations between the two countries that have been growing stronger in recent years. Iran and Russia have both been subject to recent Western sanctions, and both countries have regional interests in the Middle East as well as an opposition to United States foreign policy.

The agreement itself lays out "a theoretical framework of cooperation in the military sphere," says Shoigu, and includes increases in exchange of military personnel for training purposes, in the number of port visits by each country’s navy, and in cooperation for counter-terrorism strategies.

There was no mention of arms trade negotiations, as there is still tension resulting from an $800-million contract signed in 2007 for the sale of five Russian S-300 missile systems to Iran that never took place. Russia cancelled the missile delivery and put a halt to all military-technical cooperation after the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions against Iran in 2010 over its nuclear program. This resulted in a lawsuit at the OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in Geneva wherein Iran demanded $4 billion from Russia in compensation. It was reported by the Center for Analysis of World Arms Trade in Moscow that Russia lost an estimated $13 billion in arms contracts because of the sanctions. While the Geneva court has not yet made a ruling on the case, there are Russian media reports claiming that the two countries have agreed to settle their differences and make peace over the deal, but no specifics have yet been released as to what action will be taken.

Much of the discussion surrounding the growing relationship suggests that an enmity towards the United States is a large factor in bringing Iran and Russia closer together. Dehghan put the blame of the declining security situation in the Middle East and the rest of the world on the United States’ involvement in the domestic affairs of other countries, and he emphasized “the importance of the need to develop Russia and Iran’s cooperation in the joint struggle against meddling in the affairs of the region by external forces that are not part of it…” Dehghan asserted that Iran and Russia, “as two neighbors,” have common viewpoints towards regional, global, and political issues, and that Russia and Iran have the power to “confront the expansionist intervention and greed of the United States through cooperation, synergy and activating strategic potential capacities.”

This agreement is preceded by the recent nuclear talks on Iran in Geneva, which ended in mid-January. A spokesperson for the European Union said the talks were “serious and useful,” while others said they remain difficult and show little hope for progress.  There were unconfirmed reports of a tentative agreement that would reduce Tehran’s nuclear capabilities by committing the country to ship much of the required materials to Russia, a move that may have spurred this new relationship between the two countries.

The Geneva talks will resume once again at senior-official level early next month, with Secretary of State John Kerry speaking for the United States and Jarad Zarif, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Iran. The six-power group involved in the negotiations is chaired by the E.U. and includes the U.S., Russia, China, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The group has set a March deadline to agree on a framework for the deal and a deadline of late-June to complete the deal. There has been no comment from the group members on the new military agreement between Russia and Iran, but it is very likely that it will have some effect on the outcome of the nuclear talks. As it stands, Iran can either continue with its nuclear program or let it go and win the removal of Western sanctions and move forward in its trade relationship with Russia. Either way, Iran’s priorities will be made clear by the end of June.