A ceremony was held at the Russian Embassy compound in Tehran on Thursday to commemorate Russia National Day which falls on 12 June.
In the ceremony, which was also attended byRouhollah Dehghani Firouzabadi, Iran’s Vice-President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, the Russian ambassador to Tehran Alexey Dedov once again on behalf of his country extended his condolences to Tehran over the loss of President Ebrahim Raeisi and his foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in the tragic helicopter crash in northwest Iran.
The Russian envoy expressed happiness with the growing trend in the bilateral relations between Tehran and Moscow and said that the ties between the two nations are increasing to grow in gas and oil projects as well as the scientific field. 
Dehghani Firouzaabadi, for his part, thanked the Russian government for the message of condolence on the martyrdom of late President Raeisi and his companions in the chopper incident and declared that the two nations are stepping up their bilateral relations in all fields.
The scientific vice president of Iran also referred to neighbors first policy pursued by the late President Raeisi’s administration, stressing that Iran seeks ties with all countries, especially important neighbors like Russia.
He further said that the expanding ties with neighboring countries as a priority will continue in the next Iranian goverment, noting that the Iran’s membership in BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization has laid the ground for further expanding ties between Tehran and Moscow as two member states in those two importnat groups of countries. 
KI