Safari, who traveled to Moscow to attend the first meeting of BRICS representatives in 2024, held separate meetings on Thursday to hold talks with Russian presidential aide Igor Levitin and the country's Deputy Minister of Transport Dmitry Zverev.

Pointing to the two countries' presidents’ emphasis on accelerating the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway, Safari urged the speedy settlement of the remaining issues to ink the executive contract of this agreement.

For their part, Russian officials also called for removing existing obstacles in the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway.

Back in May, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia signed an agreement worth $1.6 billion to build the Rasht-Astara railway, a project in northern Iran that will be key to the transit of cargo through the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).

The 162-kilometer railway will connect the city of Rasht, near the Caspian Sea, to Astara on the border with Azerbaijan. Once completed, the rail link will allow rail freight transport from the Persian Gulf to Helsinki in Finland via Russia's Saint Petersburg.