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Taking part in the meeting were Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko and Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Ghalibaf, friends, I am delighted to welcome you to St Petersburg.

I am sure that your work at this event, BRICS’ interparliamentary dimension, will be very useful. More importantly, it comes at the right moment.

Iran is beginning its work as a full member of this association. This makes us happy. We worked together to organise Iran’s accession.

Russia and Iran are making considerable progress in their relations. Iran recently held a presidential election. I hope and I have no doubt that Russia-Iran relations will develop at the same steady pace as they did under Mr Raisi, whose passing we all mourn. The inauguration of the President-elect of Iran will be held soon. Your colleague, Mr Volodin, will lead the Russian delegation at that event.

I am happy to see you, and I would like to ask you to convey our best wishes to the spiritual leader of Iran and to the Iranian nation as a whole.

Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (retranslated): Good afternoon, Mr President. I would like to thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to have a brief meeting with me. Thank you very much. We would also like to convey the Supreme Leader’s best wishes to you.

I would like to note the importance of the ongoing developments. The Supreme Leader emphasises the importance of continuing every major project that you and us have agreed upon, which were outlined in the first written message that […] handed over to you during previous visit. We have received your answer to the Supreme Leader’s message. So, everything has come together, and we will continue to work.

I would like to assure you and our Russian colleagues that the Iranian Parliament and the new Iranian government will continue to expand cooperation with the Russian Federation at the same pace as before.

We initiated major projects under late President Raisi. We realise that this tragic event strongly impacted our country. I would also like to thank you in person for the timely support that you accorded to us that very night.

I am certain and there is no doubt that we will put in even more effort into expanding bilateral relations as they apply to the bilateral projects and other projects that we are pursuing as part of BRICS, among others.

We have been working successfully on major interregional projects for more than a decade mow. We see how illegal activities of the United States adversely impact our region. However, we are cooperating and acting as a team, and Iran and Russia have been successfully countering these threats and challenges.

We cooperate not only in matters of security, but in other important regional issues, including economic projects, as well. We need to further up our cooperation.

Today, you spotlighted critically important issues in your remarks. I am certain that the necessary ground for this has been prepared as well. True, there are occasional bureaucratic obstacles, but they are fairly inconsequential. Rest assured that we can make these obstacles disappear as we move into the future.

Your special envoys and representatives often go to Iran. They monitor the status of the implementation of the projects, and we discuss project details with your colleagues.

We should be more serious about our major projects, especially the North-South project, energy projects, and regional projects. The Iranian parliament has adopted a five-year programme, and the North-South project tops the list of the region’s major projects. We are quite serious about implementing the existing agreements. I am confident that bureaucratic hurdles will not hinder the implementation of this project.

Today, we are all determined to implement everything we have agreed upon with the Russian Federation. As you noted in your remarks, we must properly address the areas, in which the Americans are acting against us. We will join our efforts in addressing these matters.

Our military-technical cooperation is making strides. I think we can establish similarly effective cooperation on issues other than military as well.

Once again, rest assured that the successful implementation of these projects is beyond doubt. Thank you very much once again.

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