Sergei Lavrov and Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the foreign ministers of Iran and Russia, respectively, signed a document on countering sanctions on December 5, according to a correspondent of RIA Novosti.
The document is titled “Declaration of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran on ways and means of countering, mitigating and compensating for the negative consequences of unilateral coercive measures.”
The ceremony took place in Moscow, where the Iranian Foreign Minister attended bilateral negotiations with Lavrov and a ministerial meeting of the five Caspian states (Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan).
The sanctions regime imposed by Western nations on the Russian Federation has undergone a substantial transformation since the commencement of the special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In addition to the need to redirect export flows to new markets, develop alternative payment instruments for international trade, saturate the market with substitute products, and maintain macroeconomic stability, the domestic economy has encountered new challenges.
The applied mechanism of setting maximum prices for energy resources, which aims to reduce the state’s revenue from the export of hydrocarbons and rebalance the state budget in light of the increase in military expenditures, is a fundamentally new instrument of sanction policy directed at Russia.
The Islamic Republic of Iran encountered a comparable degree of sanction pressure in 2012 due to divergences concerning the characteristics of its nuclear programme. Furthermore, the European Union, in conjunction with other nations, implemented sanctions in response to the resolution of the United Nations Security Council. These included an embargo on hydrocarbons, the primary export commodity of Iran, freezing assets from the central bank and largest financial institutions, disconnection from international payment systems, and prohibiting a substantial portion of imported goods and services.
Alternative payment systems, technological collaborations, expanding cooperation in the energy sector, enhancing regional connectivity and trade, supporting each other’s international initiatives, participating in joint military exercises and cooperation, promoting cultural and educational exchanges, and establishing a strategic partnership founded on shared interests are all methods of countering sanctions.
Russia is discussing a similar pact with Venezuela.
