By NNN-KUNA
Tehran : Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described his country’s relations with Russia as strategic, noting at the same time that having a strong Iran was beneficiary for Russia.
During his reception in honour of visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Wednesday, Ahmadinejad said such strategic relations required an expansion of bilateral cooperation.
The Iranian president said that he expected the Iranian nuclear issue to be eventually settled.
For his part, Lavrov said Russia did not believe that Iran posed any threat and was surprised that the US was using such an alleged threat to justify the deployment of an anti-missile defence system in Eastern Europe.
The Russian Foreign Minister’s visit to Iran is to attend a meeting for Caspian countries’ foreign ministers.