Russian, Iranian Defence Ministers Sign Military-technical Cooperation Agreement

Russian and Iranian defence ministers Sergei Ivanov and Ali Shamkhani signed an agreement on military-technical cooperation Tuesday. Speaking to journalists, Sergei Ivanov stressed that the agreement was not secret, corresponded to the norms of international law, to all the standards and was nearly similar to the respective agreements between Russia and other countries. Ivanov recalled that the signing of the document had been agreed upon back in March 2001 when Iranian president Mohammad Khatami visited Moscow. Iranian defence minister Ali Shamkhani highly assessed the agreement achieved. He emphasized that it was not aimed against the third countries and was designed to strengthen peace, strategic stability in the region and cooperation in other areas.