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Iran’s Communications Ministry announced a commitment to explore future cooperation in e-government, information security and other fields with the Russian state-owned defense and technology conglomerate Rostec.
News of the collaboration was announced on Friday by Iran’s Information Technology Organization (ITO) – the government agency charged with developing policy related to information networks and digital services.
The statement details a meeting between ITO and Rostec – Russia’s giant science and technology companies, many of which focus on defense or industrial applications. Rostec has the goal of increasing technological development in Russia and finding export opportunities.
The latter is currently hard to come by, given Russia’s extensive sanctions over its illegal occupation of Ukraine.
If any nation understands how such sanctions bite, it is Iran that has been subjected to similar sanctions and restrictions.
The report of the ITO meeting included the production of electronics, cyber security, optical fiber equipment, 5G, e-government and urban transport, and Rostec expressed its interest in working together on these topics.
The prospect of Rostec establishing a presence in Iran’s technology park has also been raised.
Both Russia and Iran have been accused of using far-flung malicious cyber actors to attack systems and spread disinformation abroad. Cooperation between the two countries to improve their offensive and defensive capabilities is not good.
Both countries will fight to secure all the technology they need to get their hands on to fulfill their military, intelligence and governance goals. Exploring manufacturing cooperation could alleviate those challenges — or perhaps Russia wants to learn how Iran uses gray market hardware sold by unscrupulous Gulf state vendors.
While the potential for undemocratic regimes to improve their efficiency is hard to celebrate, the e-government forum is less of an obvious threat. ®
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