China and Iran have started implementing their 25-year accord from this week which envisaged economic and security cooperation and development in these fields.
Iranian officials today announced that China and Iran signed a 25-year mutual development cooperation in 2021 and its implementation has started now.
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, in his first visit to China as foreign minister, today announced the news after holding a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. Under this accord, China will make multi-billion dollars investment in Iran which will be in addition to long-term purchase of Iranian oil.
Under this agreement, China has started importing oil from Iran, kicking away the US/UN sanctions imposed on international trade of Iranian oil.
“While preparing for the visit to China, we had made preparations to be able to mark today as the starting day of implementing the comprehensive agreement between the two countries,” Amirabdollahian said.
Signed in Tehran in March 2021 when former President Hassan Rouhani was in office, the “strategic accord” entails economic, military and security cooperation, even as both countries are under different levels of United States sanctions.
Among other things, China has been purchasing Iranian oil – with a discount – in defiance of the sanctions over the past three years. Neither country discloses exact details.
During his visit, Amirabdollahian also delivered a letter by President Ebrahim Raisi for President Xi Jinping, which he said contained an “important message” for Raisi’s administration.
He did not elaborate on the contents, but the Raisi administration has repeatedly emphasised an “Asia-centric” foreign policy that includes China as an important factor.
Amirabdollahian’s visit came amid meetings in Wuxi, Jiangsu. The foreign minister landed there shortly after China’s Yi held talks with the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and the foreign ministers of four of its member countries – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain – in addition to the Turkish foreign minister.
