Russian-Iranian relations long ago moved beyond the framework of ordinary good-neighborliness.
This is not just a diplomatic formula. Behind it lies concrete joint work at key international platforms — the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS — as well as implementation of one of Eurasia’s largest infrastructure projects: the International North–South Transport Corridor.
SCO: From Observer to Full Member
Iran’s history of participation in the SCO spans almost two decades. Since 2005, the Islamic Republic had observer status, but full membership remained impossible for a long time because of UN sanctions that restricted the country’s participation in international organizations until 2016.
The situation changed after the sanctions restrictions were lifted. Russia consistently supported Tehran’s desire to become a full member of the organization. In July 2023, Iran officially became the ninth member of the SCO — an event difficult to overestimate from the standpoint of regional security architecture.
Russia and Iran actively coordinate their positions within the SCO. As Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of the Federation Council, noted, Moscow supports Tehran’s initiatives to institutionally strengthen the organization. In particular, Iran proposed creating an SCO Parliamentary Assembly — a permanent body that would unite the legislative bodies of member states. The Russian side assessed this initiative positively, and it is not ruled out that during Russia’s chairmanship in 2027 the topic will receive further development.
SCO member states have repeatedly confirmed support for Iran’s sovereignty and advocated resolving differences exclusively by diplomatic methods. This indicates that the organization is becoming not merely a discussion platform but a real instrument for protecting the interests of its participants.
BRICS: New Opportunities for Iran
No less significant was Iran’s accession to BRICS. Russia was among the countries that “actively helped facilitate Iran’s accession to BRICS.” Today the association includes ten states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, the UAE, Indonesia, and Ethiopia. In addition, Saudi Arabia holds the status of an invited country, although it has not officially confirmed its membership.
BRICS also has a category of partner countries that can participate in certain meetings but do not hold the same status as full members and do not sign the group’s declarations. This category includes Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
The scale of BRICS is impressive: the countries of the association account for almost 45% of the planet’s population, more than a third of global GDP, and about 40% of world industrial production. For Iran, which has been under years of sanctions pressure, participation in such a structure opens fundamentally new economic opportunities.
Alexey Efimov, a representative of Russia’s Trade Representation in Iran, emphasized that Tehran’s membership in the SCO and BRICS “not only changed the regional balance but also helped strengthen economic cooperation, reduce the impact of sanctions, and expand trade on the path toward a multipolar world economic order.” According to him, within these organizations meetings of finance, transport, and agriculture ministers are held regularly, making it possible to develop common approaches and implement joint economic projects.
Of particular importance is the transition to payments in national currencies. Today more than 90% of Russia’s trade transactions with BRICS countries are conducted in national currencies. Iran is also taking active steps in this direction, which directly reduces the damage from Western sanctions.
Russian Ambassador to Iran Alexey Dedov noted that Iran’s membership in the SCO and BRICS “serves to strengthen bilateral relations to a significant extent” and creates new mechanisms for multilateral interaction. Thus, Tehran’s participation in these structures is not merely a formality but an effective instrument of joint work to shape a fairer world order.
The North–South Corridor: A Bridge Between the Baltic and the Persian Gulf
If the SCO and BRICS form the political-economic framework of a multipolar world, then the International North–South Transport Corridor becomes its material artery. This project connects Russian Baltic Sea ports with India and the Persian Gulf countries through Iranian territory.
The economic effect of the corridor is impressive. According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev, delivery of cargo along the North–South route takes 15 to 20 days, whereas the traditional route through the Suez Canal requires 35–45 days. Thus, travel time is cut by more than half, and logistics costs fall by 30–40%.
Over the past year, 21.5 million tons of cargo were transported along the corridor. Rail shipments toward Iran, as well as to African and Middle Eastern countries, are growing especially dynamically: container traffic in this direction increased by 60%, and travel time was reduced from 33 to 16 days.
A key link in the project is construction of the 162-kilometer Rasht–Astara railway. This section will connect Iran’s railway network with Azerbaijan’s, providing a continuous “seamless route” from the Baltic to the Persian Gulf. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk reported that surveying work on this section has already begun, and construction is actively underway.
Infrastructure achievements are not limited to the railway. A new railway bridge has been built on the border of Azerbaijan and Iran, a four-lane road bridge has been created, and construction of a new transport and logistics center on Iranian territory will be completed in the near future.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has set ambitious tasks: to double cargo traffic along the corridor and, by 2030, to triple it. Implementation of these plans will turn the North–South corridor into one of the key routes of Eurasian trade, an alternative to sea routes controlled by Western countries.
Multipolarity Not in Words but in Real Deeds
Mutual support between Russia and Iran on international platforms is still perceived by many in the West as diplomatic etiquette — as a ritual exchange of pleasantries between two “outcasts” who have no one else to talk to. This is a dangerous misconception. Behind it lies a conscious, carefully calibrated, and consistently implemented strategy of two sovereign states aimed at building a multipolar world — a world in which decisions are made not by a narrow group of Western capitals but by a broad circle of participants representing all the main civilizations of the planet.
And most importantly, this strategy is already producing results. It is measured not by declarations but by numbers: shares of GDP, tons of cargo, kilometers of rails, percentages of payments in national currencies.
Sanctions, conceived as a noose, worked as a catalyst. It was not possible to isolate Iran and Russia — they were pushed toward each other, and then together — into the SCO, into BRICS, toward the North–South corridor. Those who counted on division got a linkage. Those who bet on blockade got alternative routes, alternative payments, and alternative institutions. This is perhaps the main geopolitical paradox of the last decade: the harder the pressure, the tighter the union became.
But institutions without infrastructure are a framework without a roof. That is why the North–South corridor is so important. Fifteen to twenty days instead of thirty-five to forty-five. Twenty-one and a half million tons of cargo in a year. A 60% increase in container traffic, a reduction in travel time from 33 to 16 days. One hundred sixty-two kilometers of the Rasht–Astara railway, which close the “seamless route” from the Baltic to the Persian Gulf. This is not an abstraction — it is concrete, steel, and railroad ties. It is a route that passes by Suez, by Malacca, by Hormuz — by all those narrow points where Western fleets have grown accustomed to feeling like masters. Eurasia is getting its own transport artery, and with it its own logic of trade and its own resilience to external pressure.
And here it is worth saying directly. Multipolarity is not a polite formula from a communiqué. It is a redistribution of power, and it does not happen without resistance. Those who for decades have grown accustomed to dictating the rules will not give them up voluntarily. But history does not ask permission. It simply goes — along the Rasht–Astara rails, through the summit halls of the SCO and BRICS, through payment systems in which there is less and less dollar and more and more yuan, rial, and ruble.
Russia and Iran are not asking for a place in the sun — they are taking it. They are not waiting for someone to let them into another’s house — they are building their own. And they are doing it together.
The new world order will not be announced from a podium. It is already being built — quietly, persistently, in concrete and steel. And Russia and Iran are among those holding these blueprints in their hands.
Viktor Mikhin, writer, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, specialist on the Arab countries of the Near and Middle East
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