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A vast roster of Russian businesses - 65 companies - will arrive in Tehran on Monday as part of a major economic delegation for economic negotiations, Iranian Industry Ministry spokesperson Omid Ghalibaf said Sunday.

Ghalibaf explained that the delegation will consist of 100 representatives, and the negotiations will kick off starting Monday and will span three days.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson noted, the Iranian businessmen will hold a total of 750 meetings with the representatives of their Russian counterparts in the Iranian capital.

According to the Russian Expo Center's statement, more than 10 additional significant business delegations will visit Iran by the end of this year, the spokesman for the Iranian ministry noted, underscoring Iran and Russia's commitment to strengthening their commercial ties.

Ghalibaf went on to say that the trade delegation's participating Russian companies span various industries, including food and agriculture, confectionery and chocolate, aquatics, equipment and machinery for the food and agriculture sectors, medicine and medical equipment, glass and crystals, metal industries, telecommunication and radio systems, energy, and recycling.

Iran and Russia have been warming up in relations, with reports in July revealing that Iran had become Russia's top customer in purchasing Russian wheat with 360,000 metric tonnes in deliveries according to data-intelligence company Kpler. 

The negotiators with the Russian trade delegation will come from the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, together with representatives from other chambers of commerce around the nation and knowledge-based businesses.

The two countries' close collaboration comes against a backdrop of targeted and comprehensive sanctions waged by the West against them, which has prompted closer cooperation in the long run. The US-led world order has only polarized alliances further. 

The closer cooperation will ameliorate the aggressive impacts of the West-led sanctions on the two countries by locating new markets for their products and boosting military cooperation. Recently, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called the ties a "profound threat".

The Iranian Finance Ministry's banking and insurance department said in August that Iran could join the Russian Mir payment system within months of when talks between Tehran and Moscow reach a conclusion - this, according to Qorban Eskandari, the department's head, could be in the very near future. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said managers from 85 renowned Russian enterprises will visit Tehran during a meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Uzbekistan on Thursday.

The Uzbekistan-held 22nd Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which was held on Friday, announced Iran's full accession to the organization's membership.

Iran signed memorandums of arrangements and commitments on Thursday. In a tweet, Iranian Foreign Minister said: "Tonight, in the historical city of Samarkand, I signed the memorandum of commitments of Iran's permanent membership at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, with the (SCO) secretary-general." 

In September 2021, SCO members agreed to fully grant Iran membership to the organization, with Raisi lauding the move, explaining that his country can be a link to Eurasia, through a pathway tying the north to the south.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an economic, political, and security alliance comprising China, Iran, India, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. SCO Observer countries include Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia, with Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey, and Sri Lanka holding a dialogue partner status.