Iranian President Massoud Pezheskian arrived in Moscow today for talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and the signing of a strategic cooperation treaty between the two countries, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

Pezheskian, on his first visit to the Kremlin since taking over the presidency last July after the death of his predecessor in a helicopter crash, is to hold talks with Putin that will focus on bilateral relations and international issues before the two men sign the treaty.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other countries hostile to the US, such as North Korea, and has struck strategic deals with Pyongyang and its close ally Belarus, as well as a strategic partnership agreement with China.

The 20-year Russia-Iran deal, which will include provisions for closer defence cooperation, is likely to cause concern in the West, which sees both countries as bad influences on the international stage.

Moscow and Tehran argue that their increasingly close ties are not directed against other countries.

Russia has made extensive use of Iranian drones during the war, and the US accused Tehran in September of delivering short-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine. Tehran denies it has supplied drones or missiles.

The Kremlin has refused to confirm that it has received Iranian missiles, but has acknowledged that its cooperation with Iran includes “the most sensitive areas.”

Putin met with Pezheskian on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October and on the sidelines of a cultural forum in Turkmenistan the same month.

Pezheskian is being accompanied to Moscow by the oil minister, and Western sanctions imposed on the sector are likely to be discussed.