Overview

• On September 1 in Tianjin, Vladimir Putin held separate meetings with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the SCO summit.
• The Kremlin underscored an updated Russia–Iran interstate agreement, the entry into force of the EAEU–Iran free‑trade pact, and Tehran’s parliamentary ratification of the countries’ Basic Treaty.
• Putin reported sustained growth in Russia–Iran trade through 2024 and the first half of 2025 and highlighted expanding people‑to‑people ties, including 9,110 Iranian students now enrolled at Russian universities.
• With Turkiye, Moscow stressed uninterrupted natural gas deliveries via the Blue Stream and TurkStream pipelines and said the Akkuyu nuclear plant’s first unit is preparing for imminent commissioning.
• Russia credited Turkiye for hosting three rounds of direct Russia–Ukraine talks since May focused on practical humanitarian issues and noted strong tourism flows, with more than 6.7 million Russian visitors to Turkiye in 2024.