Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will hold their first meeting on the sidelines of a regional summit in Kyrgyzstan next month, Kremlin says.

Rouhani and Putin will meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on September 13 in Bishkek, Putin’s top foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said Friday, AFP reported.

Rouhani, who won Iran’s June 14 presidential election, took office on August 4.

Iran, along with Afghanistan, India, Mongolia, and Pakistan, has an observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The regional body is an intergovernmental security organization that was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

On August 6, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged support for Rouhani’s nuclear stance, saying Moscow "absolutely agrees" that Tehran’s nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully, not via ultimatums.

He also called on the P5+1 group of world powers - Russia, China, France, Britain, and the US plus Germany -- to throw their support behind the attitude of the new Iranian administration.

As a veto-wielding power at the UN Security Council, Russia has repeatedly expressed its support for Iran's nuclear energy program, voicing opposition to sanctions slapped on Tehran.

The US has imposed several rounds of illegal sanctions on Iran, which Washington claims to be aimed at pressuring Tehran to abandon its nuclear energy program.

Tehran has categorically rejected West's accusation, arguing that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a committed member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.


HK