Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko today during a meeting in Tehran expressed their desire to strengthen relations.

Lukashenka, who arrived last night in Iran on a two-day visit, spoke with Raisi this morning before they signed a road map to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the political, economic and cultural fields.

“Thirty years after the start of bilateral relations […] the two countries have a desire to strengthen their cooperation,” as they share a common “strategic vision,” the Iranian president said.

For his part, the Belarusian president said that “with great respect he observes the persistence with which the Iranian people resist external pressure, attempts to impose someone else’s will on them.”

“And I see that, despite all this, you are developing modern technologies and nuclear energy,” he added. “We can be very useful to each other if we really combine our efforts,” he stressed.

Both leaders did not mention the conflict in Ukraine.

Lukashenko is a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Tehran has close ties to Moscow, though remaining neutral in the conflict.

Washington recently expressed concern about the “dangerous” escalation of military cooperation between Tehran and Moscow. Iran is accused of supplying Russia with drones that it uses in Ukraine. At the same time, Tehran announced that it had signed a contract for the purchase of Su-35 fighter jets from Russia.

Lukashenka recently visited China, from where he announced his support for the text of Beijing’s proposals to end the war in Ukraine.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP, dpa.