DUBAI, December 7. /TASS/. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that the implementation of the North-South transport corridor project will be one of the major topics for discussion during bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, the IRNA news agency reported.

"Both countries are striving to implement the North-South corridor project, and one of the topics of negotiations is accelerating its construction," he said in remarks at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport before departing for Russia.

The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran noted that Russian-Iranian cooperation "still has room for development" in addition to the two countries’ partnership within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS.

Raisi also said that in Moscow he would discuss efforts to help Palestine.

"An important issue that worries the entire region <...> are the crimes against the Gaza Strip and the oppressed people of Palestine. Therefore, one of the important topics of negotiations between Iran and Russia is Palestine and immediate efforts to stop the bombing of the Gaza Strip," he said.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin press service reported that during the talks between Putin and Raisi in Moscow, the parties will discuss trade and economic cooperation, including in the field of transport and energy, and will also exchange views on critical international and regional topics.

The last time Putin and Raisi met was in September 2022 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on the sidelines of the SCO summit. There, the leaders held bilateral negotiations during which, in particular, it was noted that the positions of Moscow and Tehran on many international issues are close or coincide, and cooperation between the two countries continues to develop across all areas of mutual interest.

The intergovernmental agreement for the creation of a multimodal North-South transport corridor was signed by Russia, India and Iran in 2000. Subsequently, the list of parties to the agreement expanded to 14. The goal of the project is to direct flows of Europe-bound cargo traffic originating in India, Iran and the Persian Gulf states through Russian territory to markets in Europe. Compared to the maritime route through the Suez Canal, the North-South corridor cuts the overall distance by more than half, thus reducing the time and cost of transportation. Currently, the project combines several different transport systems of various participating countries.