Belarus and Iran, both friends of Putin, plan to strengthen military and broader ties

From Mark Trevelyan

(Reuters) -Belarus and Iran – two countries -supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine – presidents of Minsk’teki talks on Wednesday, said that they plan to deepen binary bonds in all areas, including defense.

Belarus State News Agency Belta, presidents Alexander Lukashenko and Masoud Pesshkian’ın strategic partnership agreement, he said they agreed to work.

“In geopolitical turbulence conditions, Minsk and Tehran take consistent and balanced steps to further improve cooperation, and every new challenge is working hard to transform a new opportunity,” Lukashenko said.

“We are ready to discuss any problems, we have no closed issues,” said Lukashenko, the two countries can be a partner in a series of “military-technical cooperation”, he added.

Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, allowed Russia to use the Belarus region as a launch ramp for full -scale invasion of Ukraine, and then decided to host Russian tactical nuclear missiles.

Iran provided a drone to Russia to be used in the war, and Pesshkian signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Putin in January, although it did not contain a mutual defense substance.

Both Iran and Belarus are under the things that Pezshkian describes as “illegal Western sanctions”. BELTA said that Iran is ready to help Belarus “neutralizing” such measures and has more than 40 years of experience in this field.

Pezshkian said that the two countries should turn economic and other ties into a level suitable for the high level of confidence between them.

“Of course, our common views should be applied in economic and cultural fields, in the development of tourism between our countries, and as you give notes in economic and cultural fields, and as you give, in the development of military-technical cooperation.”

(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Alex Richardson)