TEHRAN – The presidents of Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan held key talks in Baku on Monday. The talks between the three leaders promised a new chapter for regional cooperation and integration.

The tripartite meeting between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev comes at a time where the Middle East region, as wellspring of energy reserves, is plagued by numerous challenges, notably terrorism and extremism.

The meeting is the first of what is hoped to be the beginning of “regional convergence,” as stressed by Iranian ambassador to Baku Mohsen Pakaein.

Addressing the summit, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said the importance of such meetings lies in the joint challenges the countries of Iran, Russian, and Azerbaijan are facing as well as the opportunities they have at their disposal.

“Since the three neighboring countries, for various reasons, particularly their geostrategic situation, share a wide range of concerns, opportunities, challenges, and face some common threats in political, economic, cultural, technological, and environmental domains, interaction and cooperation between them becomes a necessity felt more than any time else,” said the president.

“We believe that in our contemporary world, no single country can address challenges and use opportunities on its own, and obtaining an acceptable level of peace, welfare, and development for the people of a given country demands interaction and cooperation with all countries particularly with neighboring ones.”

To materialize the goal, Iran sees “multilateral negotiations” as an effective and necessary mechanism, Rouhani highlighted.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s foreign policy toward other countries in general and neighboring countries in particular is premised upon cooperation, synergy and finding solutions to achieve common interests, and a win-win policy.”

“From the perspective of Iran, tripartite cooperation between Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia within a tripartite framework can not only contribute to the expansion and strengthening of capacities in all political, cultural, and economic spheres, but also it can create new opportunities to address current regional challenges via synergy and convergence.” 

President Rouhani also suggested the next trilateral summit be held in Iran.

“I am honored to suggest that the next presidential-ministerial summit be held in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

In their bilateral meeting Putin and Rouhani also insisted on the need to accelerate the pace of comprehensive ties between Tehran and Moscow.

AK/PA