TEHRAN - The Foreign Ministry said late on Saturday that striking a 20-year cooperation agreement between Iran and Russia is at its final stage.

 “We have launched a new initiative at the Foreign Ministry, namely 20-year cooperation roadmap documents with neighboring countries, including one with Russia which is almost finalized,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told state TV.

In a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran said his country is ready to finalize a comprehensive document on long-term cooperation between the two countries.

Putin welcomed the proposal, saying, “We are determined to finalize and implement [the document] as soon as possible.”

“We will obtain permission from the cabinet to conduct negotiations and, like the 25-year cooperation roadmap we developed with China, we can do the same with major neighboring countries,” Press TV quoted Khatibzadeh as saying.

Since the U.S. unilaterally quit the 2015 nuclear agreement in May 2018 and slapped the harshest sanctions in history against Iran, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has been insisting on the need to press ahead with efforts to neutralize the sanctions.

Under such a strategy, Iran has tried to adopt an East-oriented economic policy, expanding ties with neighboring and other Asian countries and striving to become self-sufficient in key domains. Earlier this year, Iran and China signed a landmark 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership in defiance of the illegal sanctions by the United States.