Russia and Iran sign a cooperation treaty in the Kremlin

President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, signed a major cooperation treaty on Friday in the Kremlin, solidifying an alliance between two countries driven by a mutual desire to challenge the West.

The treaty was the last that Russia signed with a country that has been engaged in a conflict with Western states since Moscow invaded Ukraine almost three years ago, and represents an effort to improve its global standing before the ‘beginning of the second Trump presidency.

Iran and Russia have been subject to numerous sanctions from the West, and trade and finance are at the forefront of the deal signed on Friday.

The published agreement covers military issues and specifies that in the event that Iran or Russia are attacked, the signatories of the treaty will not provide any military or other aid to the aggressor that would “facilitate the continuation of the aggression.”

But in contrast to the agreements that Moscow has signed with other allies, the agreement with Iran does not stop to include a mutual defense clause, according to the ambassador of Iran in Moscow.

“The independence and security of our country, as well as self-sufficiency, are very important,” Kazem Jalali told IRNA, an Iranian news agency, according to TASS. “We are not interested in joining any bloc.”

Speaking in the Kremlin before the meeting, Mr Putin called Mr Pezeshkian’s visit “especially important” and said the agreement signed was “big, basic, comprehensive”.

Iranian leaders presented the trip as more than a state visit, saying it represented a strategic turning point.

“This treaty is not only a key turning point that strengthens our bilateral ties,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on the Telegram social media network. He added, “This is not just a political agreement, it is the road map for the future.”

Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the timing of the treaty signing was not intended to divert attention from Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Monday, and Mr. Araghchi told the state television in Iran that had been planned months ago.

Since the invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago, Moscow and Tehran have grown closer. Iran sent ballistic missiles and short-range drones to Russia, according to to American and European officials, to help the Kremlin’s war effort. Iran has denied supplying weapons to Moscow.

The Kremlin has provided some diplomatic support to Tehran, but has had to balance the relationship with maintaining ties with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both of which are Iran’s adversaries. Moscow and Tehran recently faced a major clash in the region with the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

Since the beginning of the war, Russia has worked to counter what it sees as an aggressive and imperial Western hegemony, led by the United States, by creating and formalizing a series of treaties.

In June, Russia signed a partnership agreement with North Korea, and in December, a security treaty with Belarus formalized the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in that country. Both treaties include a mutual defense clause.

Russia also leads what is known as the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which includes Belarus and several other former Soviet states including Armenia in the Caucasus, and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in Central Asia.

Intended as a counterweight to NATO, the organization is based on a principle that an attack against one member must be perceived as an attack against all. The alliance has recently been challenged with Armenia effectively freezing its membership.

For its part, Iran is facing a cascade of challenges at home and in the region, with its militant allies weakened and its economy in shambles due to sanctions. Mr. Trump’s return as US president is likely to bring more pressure and efforts from Washington to isolate Iran.

Defense concerns aside, Russia has been working with Iran and other countries to develop an alternative to the Western-led Swift, a global messaging service that connects more than 11,000 financial institutions and allows them to alert others on pending transactions.

Moscow hopes too built a railroad through Iran connecting Russia directly with the ports of the Persian Gulf. Mr Araghchi said the deal signed on Friday would allow Iran to serve as a gateway for Russian gas exports through its pipeline network, bringing gas from the Caspian Sea to the coast of the Persian Gulf. It means, he said, that Iran is “becoming a major center for gas exports.”

Mr. Jalali, the ambassador to Russia, told the Iranian media that the leaders of Russia and Iran realized that an older agreement between the two countries was outdated and did not reflect the reality of the current world and order regional

The new agreement, he said, “takes into consideration every aspect of our bilateral relations including our political stance. How we see power and how we move forward together.”