Speaking at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, Raisi also called for expanding free trade among the SCO’s member countries, alongside financial and banking cooperation.

Tehran, which seeks to overcome economic isolation imposed by US sanctions, yesterday signed a memorandum of obligations to become a permanent member of the SCO.

The organisation, formed in the 2001 as a talking shop for Russia, China and ex-Soviet states in Central Asia, expanded four years ago to include India and Pakistan, with a view to playing a bigger role as counterweight to Western influence in the region.

Iran and the US are struggling to overcome an impasse for revival of a 2015 nuclear deal that Washington exited in 2018 and reimposed crippling economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.