Putin hails bilateral ties at first meeting with Iranian president

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday praised the close relations between Moscow and Tehran at his first personal meeting with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian.

"Relations with Iran are a priority for us, and they are developing very well. We are seeing a growth in the volume of trade this year," Putin said at the leaders' hour-long talks in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat, where they were attending an international forum.

Putin also invited Pezeshkian to visit Russia.

Previously, the heads of the two states - both of which are saddled with Western sanctions - had only been in telephone contact.

Ukraine and the United States accuse Iran of supplying Russia with weapons, including missiles and drones, for its war against Ukraine.

Describing the bilateral relations as "cordial and strategic," Pezeshkian like Putin stressed the potential for cooperation at the international level, Iran's IRNA news agency reported.

In an interview with Russian state television in Ashgabat, Pezeshkian condemned Israel's attacks in the Middle East, which in the past year caused many civilian casualties.

The Iranian president is also expected to attend the BRICS summit of emerging industrial nations from October 22 to 24 in the Russian city of Kazan.

Another bilateral meeting is planned there, said Putin, who in Ashgabat touted the "irreversible" establishment of a new world order - away from the dominance of the US.

Russia is heralding the summit of the group led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), which now has ten members, as a global political event.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in Kiev protested against Putin's trip and called on the Turkmen leadership to respect the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague against the Kremlin leader for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, Putin has largely restricted his foreign travel to countries like the former Soviet republic Turkmenistan, where he is not under threat of arrest.