TEHRAN (Defapress) – On the evening of December 15, 2025, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev met and held talks with Ali Larijani at the Secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council. The meeting was held in line with high-level understandings between the presidents of the two countries and aimed at removing existing obstacles and entering the operational phase.
In this meeting, the two sides discussed the North-South Corridor as a determining factor in the region’s geopolitics.
In this meeting, Larijani emphasized that the Islamic Republic of Iran has made its decision to operationalize this corridor and announced: “In a short period of time, all existing administrative and institutional obstacles will be removed and the necessary agreements will be established to legally and administratively stabilize the North-South Corridor.”
He also referred to the promise of the Iranian President and stated: “With the continuous follow-up of Dr. Pezhakian, all lands located along the route of this corridor will be acquired by the government by the end of the year so that the project can proceed without interruption and with complete coherence.”
In this meeting, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister also welcomed Iran’s decisive approach and announced Russia’s readiness to speed up the project and begin the operational process.
In the end, the two sides emphasized that the North-South Corridor is part of the joint strategy of Iran and Russia to consolidate sustainable cooperation and define independent routes for regional connectivity. Accordingly, it was decided that continuous follow-up mechanisms at the highest level and coordination between the relevant institutions of the two countries would continue regularly.