Expert: Belarus, Iran enjoy strategic co-operation rooted in economy

Political relations between Belarus and Iran are at a high level, and there is an understanding of further expansion of co-operation in trade, economic, investment, humanitarian and other areas. The countries’ approaches to the issue of building a modern architecture of international relations within the framework of BRICS and SCO coincide. Moreover, the trade turnover between Belarus and Iran exceeded $100m in 2023, and increased by 40 percent in H1 2024 – with potential for its further growth. Against this background, a rational question arises: how the election of the new Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, will affect the development of Belarusian-Iranian relations. In his talk with sb.by, political expert Piotr Petrovsky shared his views on the topic.

“Until 2021, Belarusian-Iranian interstate contacts were wave-like, and they reached the peak during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At that time, warm and trusting personal relations were established between the leaders of the two countries,” the expert said.

Mr. Petrovsky added that, after President Ebrahim Raisi came to power in 2021, Belarusian-Iranian relations received a new impetus: a month after he took office, the first meeting of the two presidents took place on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Dushanbe.

“In March 2023, President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko paid an official visit to Tehran, and the Belarusian-Iranian relations were actually reset then. At present, our political ties are at the highest level since the establishment of diplomatic relations 30 years ago,” the expert continued. “The visit of the Belarusian leader to Iran became a turning point in their development. The heads of state then agreed to work out an action plan for the foreseeable future so that trade between the countries and co-operation in general would develop more successfully. Following the talks, the presidents of Belarus and Iran, Aleksandr Lukashenko and Ebrahim Raisi, signed a roadmap for comprehensive co-operation for 2023-2026. As noted by the Belarusian leader then, the situation in the world was heating up, and the crisis in the Middle East was contributing to the fact that unfriendly Western countries, led by the United States, were constantly directing the edge of that conflict against Iran. "You feel it better, and we have one response: we must work more closely with each other, co-operate to resist these attacks," President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko said.”

At the same time, as stressed by Mr. Petrovsky, a desire of the parties to shift co-operation to a stable, strategic level (that would not depend on the change of presidents and prime ministers) was born. “To this end, Belarus and Iran signed a wide range of agreements and contracts for the supply of special equipment, fertilisers, and the intensification of the use of the North-South transport and logistics corridor,” he added.

“To understand the scale of the signed contracts, I can refer to an interesting fact: the Iranian side signed an agreement for the supply of 700 BELAZ mining dump trucks. There are similar scales of agreements in other areas of bilateral economic co-operation as well,” the expert said. “Many Belarusian companies operating in the fields of mechanical engineering, woodworking, light and food industries, trade and investment, transport and logistics, medicine, pharmaceuticals and banking are actively working with Iranian partners – solving various practical tasks related to the integration of payment systems and banking services, the organisation of transport logistics, dealing with visa problems, expanding the geography of export supplies of products, and restoring air traffic which is still unavailable between the states. At the same time, the parties need to move from ordinary trade to co-operation, establishing joint production facilities in Iran and Belarus. The countries also intend to actively develop military-technical contacts, liaise in the field of military science and education.”

Mr. Petrovsky added that a lot has been done in the past year to improve co-operation. For example, on December 25th, 2023, a free trade agreement was signed between the Eurasian Economic Union and its member states on the one hand and the Islamic Republic of Iran on the other. Since February 4th, 2024, the Iranian side has cancelled visas for citizens of 28 countries, including Belarus.