TEHRAN – Iran and Russia will soon establish a joint innovation center, the deputy science minister has said.

"Launching the joint innovation center is at the final stages and will be inaugurated soon,” Hassan Zamanian said in a meeting in Tehran on Saturday with his Russian counterpart Konstantin Mogilensky.

“We also proposed setting up a center at the Russian ministry of science to deal with problems faced by Iranian medical students in Russia,” he added, noting that the proposal was welcomed by the Russian side, IRNA reported.

Mogilensky, for his part, referred to the high capacity of Iranian universities in the field of research and technology, and said, “The areas of cooperation will be determined in the joint committee to be signed later by the high officials of the two countries’ ministries of science.”

He went on to say that Iranian and Russian universities have already signed dozens of memorandums of understanding. Persian and Russian languages are already taught in universities reciprocally. The expansion of these trainings can further strengthen the relations between Russia and Iran.

Geographical proximity and Western countries’ sanctions on the two countries are the reasons for the two countries’ alliance in recent years, Mogilensky added.

He further noted the scientific and academic cooperation between the two countries has a long history that needs to be promoted.

After the meeting, the Russian delegation visited Sharif University of Technology.

Also, a joint statement on cooperation between Iran and Russia was signed by the oil ministers of the two countries, in which scientific and technological cooperation was also mentioned.

Planning to recognize higher education degrees

Iran and Russia are about to reach an agreement on mutually recognizing higher education degrees, Hadi Goudarzi, the counselor of the Iranian Embassy in the Russian Federation, said in January.

Once the agreement is finalized, the governments of the two countries are expected to sign a document, TASS reported.

The document will cover the recognition of bachelor's, master's, postgraduate and doctoral diplomas.

"More than 90 percent of the agreement is ready, I think it will be signed at the level of the governments of Iran and Russia in the near future," TASS quoted Goudarzi as saying.

Moreover, Iran has just joined BRICS - comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa - starting academic and scientific cooperation with Russia within the BRICS framework.

"I think there will be a lot of meetings between us during this year where new treaties on scientific and practical cooperation within the BRICS framework can be proposed," Goudarzi added.

Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Ethiopia became full members of BRICS as of January 1.

MT/MG