TEHRAN — Iran maintains close contact with Russia and China and considers both countries strategic partners, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Sunday, ahead of a planned meeting between their leaders and US President Donald Trump in Shenzhen.
Baghaei said Moscow and Beijing were familiar with Tehran’s positions. His remarks emphasised continuing consultations with the two governments as preparations advanced for the three-leader gathering on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
The immediate diplomatic development was an announcement from Moscow that Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump would meet on November 19. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday that the sides had reached an agreement on the gathering.
“We are in close contact with both Russia and China. China and Russia are our strategic partners and know our positions well,” Baghaei said, according to an account of Sunday’s briefing published by Report.
Baghaei also described consultations with Russia as continuous. Tehran discusses regional developments and other issues through telephone conversations, its embassy in Moscow and the Russian ambassador in Tehran, Report quoted him as saying.
His remarks establish Iran’s description of those relationships. They do not establish an agreed position among Tehran, Moscow and Beijing on the outcome of the Shenzhen meeting, or announce an Iranian role in the three-leader format.
Peskov’s announcement moved the Russian account beyond the preparatory stage described in earlier comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov and presidential aide Yuri Ushakov.
Peskov told TASS that an agreement had been reached for the three presidents to meet on November 19. He said the talks would take place in Shenzhen on the sidelines of the APEC summit, according to the agency’s report of his announcement. That is Moscow’s account of the arrangements, rather than a joint announcement reproduced by all three governments.
The APEC leaders’ meeting is scheduled for November 18–19. The wider forum’s programme and any separate diplomatic meetings should be kept distinct: the Kremlin’s announcement concerns the three presidents’ talks alongside the summit.
In separate remarks Sunday, Baghaei said Iran and the United States had not reached discussions about suspending or reducing uranium enrichment. “We have not been discussing the details of the nuclear issue at all,” TASS quoted him as saying in its report from the Tehran news conference. Those comments describe Tehran’s account of its exchanges with Washington, not an agreed agenda for the Shenzhen gathering.
