Beijing has been an important trading partner for Iran in recent years, an American publication said, noting that the signing of a strategic document between Iran and China played a role in thwarting the US plans to isolate Tehran.
Talking of the Iran China Bilateral Advances, The Wall Street Journal has said,
Iran and China signed a wide-ranging economic and security cooperation agreement, defying U.S. attempts to isolate Iran and advancing Tehran’s longstanding efforts to deepen diplomatic ties outside Western powers.
Foreign ministers Javad Zarif and Wang Yi signed on Saturday what both sides bill as a “strategic partnership” that will last for 25 years. The deal, which was five years in the making, was signed in Tehran.
Details about the agreement weren’t immediately published, but a draft of the agreement circulated last year included Chinese investments in projects ranging from nuclear energy, ports, railroads, and other infrastructure to transfer of military technology and investment in Iran’s oil-and-gas industry.
In return for investments, China would receive steady supplies of Iranian oil, Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency said Saturday, adding that the two countries also agreed to establish an Iranian-Chinese bank. Such a bank could help Tehran evade U.S. sanctions that have effectively barred it from global banking systems.
“This cooperation is a basis for Iran and China to participate in major projects and infrastructure development,” including Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Friday ahead of the signing, referring to China’s vast global investment and development strategy.
“The agreement with China signals that Iran has strong allies, including one that holds a permanent seat on the Security Council,” the Wall Street Journal said. “It has the United Nations.”
The document of the comprehensive cooperation plan of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the People’s Republic of China, known as the 25-year plan, was signed on Saturday in Tehran by Mohammad Javad Zarif and “Wang Yi”, the foreign ministers of the two countries.
In 1984, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the People’s Republic of China issued a joint comprehensive strategic statement of the two countries, and the two sides agreed to conclude a comprehensive cooperation program. After consultations and talks on April 28, 1941, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Member of the State Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yi signed a “Comprehensive Cooperation Program between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the People’s Republic of China” in Tehran. .