🎙 Remarks and answers to media questions by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister of Iran Abbas Araghchi following bilateral talks (Tehran, October 19, 2026) Key points: 🇷🇺🇮🇷 #RussiaIran cooperation continues to develop dynamically, despite the well-known circumstances. We have a solid foundation for further steady progress: the updated foundational interstate Treaty, which entered into force on October 2, 2025, and, for the first time, formally established our relations as a comprehensive strategic partnership. • Russia demonstrates its commitment to this fundamental document through concrete action. At the UN, we thwarted attempts to justify the illegal acts of aggression by the US and Israel against Iran. We acted swiftly to provide the friendly Iranian people with humanitarian assistance, delivering much-needed medicines and medical supplies. Food supplies are also delivered regularly. • We noted robust growth in bilateral trade. It increased by 21% in 2025 and by more than 10% in the first eight months of 2026. An important supporting factor is the Free Trade Agreement between Iran and the EAEU, which entered into force in May 2025. Just five days ago, on October 14, the Iran-Eurasian Economic Commission Joint Committee held its second meeting. • We reviewed the situation resulting from the unprovoked US-Israeli aggression against Iran. I reiterated Russia’s readiness to help find acceptable negotiated solutions to this man-made crisis. We welcomed Tehran’s commitment to using diplomacy to establish lasting peace and stability in the region. • We believe it is important to restore the pre-crisis situation in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, including freedom of navigation and guarantees that the aggression will not recur. We appreciate the efforts of international mediators working to help secure such a durable agreement. • It is important to resume dialogue on the situation in and around Yemen. The best course would be to return to the roadmap developed in Saudi Arabia in 2023, which was acceptable to both the internationally recognised authorities in Aden and the Ansar Allah movement. • I thanked our Iranian friends for their objective position on the Ukrainian crisis. I briefed them on the latest developments and the efforts underway to ensure that the objectives of the special military operation are fulfilled unconditionally, preferably through negotiations. ☝️ However, neither the Kiev regime nor its European “patrons” are clearly ready for such talks. • The eradication of traditional Orthodox Christianity, with its centuries-old roots in Ukraine, adds a religious dimension to the war unleashed against us. Western Europe would probably feel more comfortable if Ukrainians’ religious beliefs were guided by the so-called “liberal thinking” now being actively imposed across Europe in opposition to traditional Christian values dating back centuries, even millennia. • Some claim that Russia supposedly benefits from the crisis in energy markets. Prices are rising, they say, and we are supposedly “rubbing our hands” and filling our coffers to continue financing our “aggression against Ukraine”, as it is called in the West. 👉 President Putin has repeatedly stressed that we have no interest in price volatility, with prices swinging up and down. • As a responsible state, Russia wants stability, including stable prices. This is essential for planning our long-term development. The latest budget, currently under consideration, is based on precisely this scenario. Read in full