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Khatami's Visit Heralds New Iran-Russia Ties
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami headed to Moscow on Monday, for the first ever visit to Russia by an Iranian head of state since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Khatami's three-day visit, at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, is expected to focus on the legal status of the strategic Caspian Sea, and issues concerning security and peace in the region.
The Caspian is the main issue bedeviling Moscow-Tehran relations. Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are the five countries bordering the Caspian Sea which is estimated to contain the world's third largest reserves of oil and gas after the Persian Gulf and Siberia.
Iran, which has the least amount of undersea oil and gas in its southern-rim coastline, has indicated that it will agree to an equitable sharing of the oil-rich Caspian, which will give it a 20 percent share.
But Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have been favoring splitting up the seabed using median lines starting at the coastline borders, which will give Iran only about 13 percent of the seabed with very little oil in it.
For the reason, Iran has forced the postponement of a crucial Caspian Sea summit for signing a legal framework governing the world largest closed body of water. Khatami's visit to Moscow comes one week ahead of the originally planned date to seek an urgent negotiation with Putin.
Khatami is to hold talks with Putin, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and address the Russian State Duma.
Iran and Russia have been trying to upgrade their relations in recent years. Last December, during a visit to Tehran by Russian Defense Minister Marshal Igor Sergeyev, the two countries declared that the 1995 Russia-U.S. deal that prevented Moscow from selling conventional arms to Iran was practically dead.
Russia has began building the first block of Iran's nuclear power station at the southern port of Bushehr, while its Far East Sea Company has started operation of drilling for oil exploration in Iran.
Tehran has announced to resume military cooperation with Russia, through which Russia can earn up to 7 billion U.S. dollars in the next few years.
Meanwhile, the volume of commercial transactions between the two countries reached 900 million dollars in 2000, some 300 million dollars more than the previous year.
Local media commented that Khatami's visit to Russia would mark the beginning of a new chapter in relations between the two nations and "the security and stability of the region owes much to their solid ties."
The visit has also caught the attention of many countries in the world, including Iran's arch-foe, the United States, which has always been trying to prevent Russian arms sales to Iran. Washington labelled Iran as a "rogue state" and strongly opposed the construction of the Bushehr power plant by Russia.
It also accused Russia of transferring technology of weapons of mass destruction to Iran, an allegation repeatedly denied by both Iran and Russia.
Treaty on Bilateral Relations Russian President Vladimir Putin and his visiting Iranian counterpart Mohammed Khatami signed a treaty Monday on the fundamentals of bilateral relations and cooperation.
Under the treaty, both sides must not use force or threaten to use force in dealing with bilateral relations and must not allow their territories to be used for aggressive, subversive or separatist acts against each other.
If any side suffers an aggression from a third party, the other side must not render military or other assistance to the aggressor, and should seek a settlement on the basis of the U.N. Charter and international laws, the treaty said.
The two sides also agreed to settle their disputes in peaceful ways.
Putin and Khatami signed the treaty after hours of meeting in the Kremlin.
Khatami arrived here Monday for a four-day official visit, the first one by an Iranian top leader in nearly 40 years.
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