At the CIS Summit in Turkmenistan Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has proposed creating a “CIS+1” format for deeper interaction between the Commonwealth of Independent States and Tehran.
“The format ‘Member States of the Commonwealth + Iran’, or ‘CIS+1’, should be created as a flexible and effective mechanism for dialogue and cooperation," the Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
Masoud Pezeshkian added that regional diplomacy “must become a tool for crisis management, maintaining communication, preventing the spread of conflicts and activating practical cooperation”. According to him, Iran wants “connection, not fragmentation; cooperation instead of destructive competition; interdependence instead of one-sided dependence; and security based on trust and common interests, instead of security based on threats”.
He noted that Iran is a “gateway” connecting Central Asia to the open sea, and the country’s ports in the Persian and Oman Gulfs provide access to South Asia, Africa and Europe. Masoud Pezeshkian emphasised that the North–South and West–East corridors are not competitors but “elements of a single regional network”.
In conclusion, the President expressed hope that this summit would become “a practical step towards shaping a region in which Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Iran represent not a collection of fragmented spaces, but part of a single network of cooperation”.