TEHRAN- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has received a formal invitation from South African President Matamela Ramaphosa to attend the BRICS+ summit that will be held in Johannesburg in August.

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor broke the story in a telephone conversation with her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian on Monday evening.

In the phone call, Amir Abdollahian also said Tehran is willing to hold a joint commission meeting with South Africa and is ready for a full extension of bilateral ties.

The Iranian minister further expressed happiness with setting the date for the joint economic commission meeting between the two countries.

The Iranian foreign minister stressed the readiness of Iran to establish full-fledged ties with South Africa and cited his positive discussions with Pandor on the heels of the BRICS+ summit in Cape Town.

The foreign ministers of the two nations also discussed other topics of significance to both countries.

In early June, Amir Abdollahian visited Cape Town where he held talks with counterparts including those whose countries are member to BRICS and those aspiring to join the economic bloc.

BRICS includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Iran is among the countries that has expressed willingness to join BRICS.

On Tuesday, Iran was officially accepted as full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. 

New ambassador to Australia starts mission

Iran’s new Ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeqi met on Tuesday with Amir Abdollahian prior to leaving Tehran for Canberra to start his mission in the Oceania country.

Amir Abdollahian asked the ambassador to foster communication and cooperation between the two nations.

The foreign minister also gave the new representative some suggestions for adopting successful tactics for creating a positive environment for collaboration between Tehran and Canberra in the fields of trade and politics.

For his part, Sadeqi gave Amir Abdollahian a report on the most recent state of the bilateral relationship between Iran and Australia.

Sadeqi had previously worked for the Iranian embassy in Canada, the Islamic Republic’s permanent representative in New York, and the Iranian consulate general in India.

FM urges Iran to strengthen ties with Mauritania

Abdollahian also emphasized the necessity of deepening ties with Mauritania, particularly in the area of economic cooperation.

He made the statement while meeting with Iran’s new ambassador to Mauritania, Javad Abu, on Tuesday.

He emphasized Iran’s objective of establishing ties with Islamic countries.

Meanwhile, Abu commented on the recent situation in Mauritania, where he will begin his duty as Iran’s new ambassador in the coming days.