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On Jan. 19, 2022, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met together with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for the primary time in Moscow to debate reviving the Joint Complete Plan of Motion (JCPOA), strengthening strategic ties in Syria and Afghanistan, and boosting navy and financial cooperation within the face of U.S. hostility and sanctions. Throughout Iran’s first presidential assembly with Russia since 2017, Raisi additionally explored reextending a multiyear settlement on bilateral cooperation that former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) had signed with Putin in 2001. Because the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Putin within the Nineteen Nineties, navy and financial relations between Iran and Russia have improved, as their tensions with the West have intensified.
One facet of those relations that has acquired little consideration is their rising financial and commerce cooperation involving the manufacturing, export, and import of halal meat and different merchandise since 2015. On Nov. 18, 2020, Iran and Russia held a digital convention that was hosted by the Iranian Embassy in Moscow on the topic and led to the approval by Russia of a strategic doc on strengthening bilateral halal commerce cooperation. The Iranian ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali (2019-present), said that the purpose was to “strengthen and develop the personal sectors of Iran and Russia” by rising halal and different commerce between them. Equally, Marat Vazykhovich Kabayev, the president of Russia’s Worldwide Affiliation of Islamic Enterprise (IAIB) — which seeks to strengthen Moscow’s ties to the Muslim world — expressed a readiness to cooperate with Iran within the commerce of halal meat and different financial actions.
The efforts of Iran and Russia to pursue halal commerce cooperation display the significance they’ve positioned on positioning themselves in a worldwide market with an estimated worth of $129 billion in 2019 that was anticipated to succeed in $140 billion in 2024, and with over 1.9 billion Muslims who comprise almost 25% of the world’s inhabitants. Whereas Iran is a Muslim-majority nation and Russia is a Christian-majority one, each comprise sizeable markets for the manufacturing and commerce of halal meat and different merchandise. In 2019, Iran and Russia ranked sixth and seventh in halal tourism (e.g., gender-segregated and family-friendly eating places, inns, and resorts that serve halal meals and comprise prayer rooms), with the 2 nations grossing revenues of $8 billion and $7 billion, respectively, on this subsector of the journey trade.
The prospect of larger halal commerce cooperation between Iran and Russia is critical for 2 causes. First, it highlights the alternatives and capacities that Iran and Russia might leverage to bolster halal and different commerce between themselves and different nations, significantly neighboring ones in Central Asia and the Center East with sizeable Muslim populations. On the identical time, this cooperation is rife with obstacles, essentially the most distinguished of that are U.S. and worldwide sanctions which have incentivized Iran and Russia to strengthen financial and commerce relations as a method of circumventing these sanctions. Second, a better examination of the Iranian and Russian organizations and people concerned within the settlement and commerce in halal merchandise and different items sheds gentle on key variations within the types and types of governance between the 2 nations, even when the political outcomes are comparable.
Alternatives and obstacles
For Iran and Russia, elevated cooperation within the halal commerce serves to counteract U.S. and worldwide sanctions — a purpose of the digital convention that was explicitly said by Jalali. It’s not a coincidence the convention was held after america withdrew from the JCPOA and reimposed financial sanctions in opposition to Iran in 2018, which pushed it to rely extra on Russia for navy and financial help. Between 2019 and 2020, Iranian exports to Russia almost doubled from roughly $400 million to $800 million and Russian exports to Iran elevated from virtually $1.2 billion to over $1.4 billion. Between 2018 and 2019, america, European Union, and different nations and multilateral organizations intensified sanctions in opposition to Russia for its function within the Russo-Ukrainian Warfare (which started in February 2014) and different malign actions. Since 2015, the sanctions have prompted Europe to halt its meals commerce with Russia, making the latter’s efforts to export halal meat and different agricultural merchandise to different areas much more necessary.
Higher halal commerce cooperation between Iran and Russia might assist them alleviate financial stress by opening extra export markets. Russia is a sizeable marketplace for halal exports from Iran, which reportedly produced 1,500 kinds of such meals merchandise, as of November 2020. That yr, round 20% of the Russian inhabitants, or 25 million out of over 144 million, had been Muslim and lots of of them presumably consumed halal meat and different merchandise. It ought to be famous {that a} research revealed in 2015 confirmed that halal meat had change into more and more standard with non-Muslims in Russia and Europe as properly, in response to meals scandals surrounding mainstream merchandise and public perceptions that halal merchandise had been more healthy and extra humane. As such, the consumption of Iran’s halal exports to Russia wouldn’t be restricted to Muslim customers. To facilitate exports, Russia accredited Iran’s request on the digital convention to ascertain an IAIB consultant workplace or company inside its territory on the Anzali port. The IAIB has consultant workplaces in at the least 20 nations around the globe in South America (Brazil), North America (america), Western Europe (Germany), Scandinavia, Jap Europe (Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia), the Center East (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the UAE), Asia (India, Singapore, and South Korea), and former Soviet Republics (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, and Uzbekistan). Nonetheless, some nations in these areas would possible be reticent to import or commerce halal and different merchandise with Iran given the chance of being subjected to secondary sanctions by america.
On the flip aspect, Iran constitutes a sizeable marketplace for the halal exports of Russia, even when the latter reportedly solely produced 1.3 million tons of halal meat, as of November 2020. With a inhabitants of almost 84 million that’s over 99% Muslim, Iran is house to a big market of customers of halal meat and different merchandise. Whereas one survey carried out in 2020 confirmed that the variety of Iranians who recognized with Islam was declining and utilized to simply over 40% of respondents, halal meals and different merchandise are presumably standard with and conceivably consumed by Iranians who don’t affiliate with Islam as properly. Home consumption and spiritual demographics apart, Iran might function a conduit for the export of Russia’s halal merchandise and different items to markets in Central Asia and the Center East. Since sanctions had been imposed in opposition to Russia in 2015, it has prioritized the Center East, alongside India and China, instead market to Europe for halal and different agricultural exports. Along with signing extra commerce and barter offers in these sectors with Iran and different Center Jap nations, Russia might leverage Iran’s Anzali Port and Free Zone, that are positioned on its Caspian coast and north-south hall with Russia. As of 2015, Iran has imported halal meat from Russia’s two largest producers and despatched their livestock merchandise to nations within the area and past. For the general public, parastatal, and personal sectors of Iran and Russia, increasing halal commerce might pave the best way for larger bilateral financial and commerce cooperation and overseas direct funding in different areas, corresponding to agriculture, trade, and hydrocarbons.
Organizations and people
On the November 2020 digital convention, three Iranian organizations and people participated alongside just one Russian one. From the Iranian aspect, negotiating and signing strategic paperwork, memoranda of understanding, and different agreements on this space requires the participation of the Ministry of International Affairs, Iran’s embassy and commerce counselors in Moscow, and its ambassador to Russia, Jalali, a longtime parliamentarian and official. Like a rising variety of Iran’s ruling elite, Jalali earned a PhD from Imam Sadiq College, which integrates Islamic training and custom with the trendy humanities and sciences. He served as a member of parliament (2000-16), the president of its analysis middle (2012-19), and the vp of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (2017-19), a multilateral group of nationwide parliaments. Although a conservative politician, Jalali grew to become a senior member of the pragmatic-centrist Moderation and Growth Celebration headed by Hassan Rouhani in 1999 earlier than resigning in 2007. Afterward, he grew to become the president of the conservative parliamentary group, Followers of the Wilayat [al-Faqih] (2012-16), and a detailed affiliate of the conservative Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani (2008-20). Throughout his second time period as president in 2019, Rouhani appointed Jalali the Iranian ambassador to Russia and he has remained on this publish beneath the present conservative president, Raisi (2021-present).
The Anzali Port and Free Zone would function the infrastructure that facilitates this commerce by land, sea, and air between Iran, Russia, and different markets. Within the course of, the Anzali Free Zone Group might supply Russia favorable phrases of commerce, together with no double taxation, decreased customs duties and different commerce boundaries, and cooperation on delivery and transportation. Because of this, through the digital convention, the Group’s managing director, Dr. Mohammadoli Roozbehan, invited the Russian consultant, Kabayev, to go to Anzali to raised perceive what it may supply. Throughout the convention, Roozbehan additionally projected that elevated financial cooperation involving halal and different merchandise between Iran and Russia might quadruple their commerce quantity between 2020 and 2022. In actuality, Iran’s whole commerce with Russia between 2020 and 2021 elevated by simply over 19%, with its imports from Russia rising by virtually 43% whereas its exports to Russia decreased by almost 23%.
Throughout Rouhani’s presidency between 2015 and 2020, the Iranian authorities, Anzali Free Zone Group, and different entities reached agreements and held conferences to develop Iran’s financial cooperation with Russia, Kazakhstan, and different members of the Eurasian Financial Union (EEU). For Iran, these efforts have been geared toward rising mutual commerce, decreasing import tariffs, and buying and selling in nationwide currencies slightly than U.S. {dollars} to bypass sanctions. The Iranian authorities and Anzali Free Zone Group might additional these goals by boosting Iran’s bilateral commerce of halal merchandise with Russia.
Whereas the Iranian Ministry of International Affairs and the Anzali Free Zone Group respectively signal agreements and supply the infrastructure to bolster the bilateral commerce, the Iran-Russia Joint Chamber of Commerce (IRJCC) and its vp, Jalil Jalalifar (who studies to its president, Dr. Hadi Tizhoush Taban), would deliver collectively public, parastatal, and personal firms and businesspeople on each side to take part within the enterprise. Primarily based in Tehran, the IRJCC develops relations, organizes occasions, and furthers the pursuits of Iranian and Russian firms that function in Iran. Just like the Iranian authorities and Anzali Free Zone Group, the IRJCC has sought to enhance infrastructure and planning (e.g., enhanced delivery and aviation applications and decreased commerce laws) to extend Iran’s commerce, barter, and alternate of oil and non-oil merchandise with Russia and different neighboring nations in Central Asia and the Center East.
In contrast to Iran, Russia had just one group, the IAIB, take part within the November 2020 digital convention. The IAIB is a commerce union that brings collectively businesspeople and entrepreneurs from totally different nations to develop Russia’s share of Islamic commerce, together with the export and import of halal meat and different merchandise, and to create jobs contained in the nation by way of this commerce — even when political and financial elites stand to reap essentially the most advantages. Primarily based in Kazan, Tatarstan and later Moscow (the place Iran respectively has a consulate and its embassy), the IAIB operates a logistics and distribution middle of halal meals and different merchandise within the Muslim-majority Russian republic of Dagestan. The IAIB additionally opened a religious and academic middle and mosque that promotes interfaith dialogue and a average and tolerant type of Islam that’s conducive to Russia’s nationwide safety and sociopolitical stability. Members of the IAIB come from totally different areas of Russia and from different nations, and consultant workplaces around the globe work to advance Russia’s industrial pursuits domestically and globally. To this finish, the IAIB collaborates with the Group of Islamic Cooperation and convenes financial boards, enterprise missions, and cultural occasions regionally and internationally.
To the surface observer, it could appear unusual that the IAIB’s president, Kabayev, slightly than a authorities official or diplomat had the authority to approve a strategic doc on halal commerce cooperation with Iran’s ambassador to Russia, and that the doc would carry any weight. On the floor, Kabayev might have been thought-about Jalalifar’s extra senior counterpart. Nonetheless, Kabayev can also be a detailed affiliate of Russian President Putin and a member of his interior circle. Kabayev is a retired skilled soccer coach and former participant. He’s additionally the daddy of the Olympic gymnast, former politician, and media mogul, Alina Kabayeva, reportedly Putin’s longtime, secret associate. Because the IAIB’s president, Kabayev is reportedly the chief of the enterprise group of Tatarstan, a Muslim-majority republic inside Russia’s Volga area, and Putin’s unofficial envoy in Central Asia. Because of this, through the 2019 Volga Funding Summit and World Halal Day in Samara, enterprise leaders recognized Kabayev because the one particular person with the facility and authority to ascertain Islamic banking and finance in Russia by selling cooperation between the Financial institution of Russia and the Islamic Growth Financial institution in Saudi Arabia.
Trying forward
The eventual extent of bilateral halal and different commerce between Iran and Russia stays to be seen. Although Iran might produce extra halal merchandise than Russia, each nations boast the home demand and consumption to represent main export markets for these merchandise, even when the demographic and spiritual tendencies inside Iran current some points in the long run. Furthermore, by way of Iran’s Anzali Port and Free Zone and Russia’s IAIB, each nations possess the infrastructure to facilitate this commerce each on a bilateral stage in addition to with different nations within the area and past. The organizations and people concerned within the November 2020 digital convention on halal commerce additionally reveal necessary variations between Iran, an electoral authoritarian state with a factionalized elite (even when the conservatives at present maintain the higher hand), and Russia, an autocratic presidential republic with a sultanistic system through which personalistic politics could also be extra prevalent and pronounced. Regardless of these systemic variations, the prospects for larger financial cooperation within the halal commerce and different areas between Iran and Russia look like promising, significantly if their tensions with the West persist.
Eric Lob is an affiliate professor within the Division of Politics and Worldwide Relations at Florida Worldwide College and a non-resident scholar with MEI’s Iran Program. The views expressed on this piece are his personal.
Photograph by PAVEL BEDNYAKOV/SPUTNIK/AFP through Getty Photographs
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