DUBAI (Reuters) – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Iran on Friday for a visit that the Iranian state media said would sign a 25-year cooperation agreement between the two countries, both of which were sanctioned by the United States.
The agreement, the final details of which have not yet been announced, should include Chinese investment in Iran’s energy and infrastructure sectors.
In 2016, China, Iran’s largest trading partner and long-term ally, agreed to boost bilateral trade more than 10 times to $ 600 billion over the next decade.
“The signing of the comprehensive cooperation program of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the People’s Republic of China by the foreign ministers of the two countries is another program of this two-day trip,” the IRNA news agency said.
Iran strengthens its position vis-à-vis the United States and European parties to the 2015 Tehran nuclear deal with world powers.
“This document is a comprehensive roadmap with strategic political and economic clauses covering trade, economic and transport cooperation … with a special focus on the private sectors of the two sides,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Saeed Khatibzadeh, for state television.
On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Beijing would work to protect Iran’s nuclear deal and defend the legitimate interests of Sino-Iranian relations.
China made the comments after Reuters reported that Iran had indirectly “moved” “record volumes of oil to China in recent months, marked as supplies from other countries, even though China’s customs data showed no Iranian oil was imported into China.” the first two months of this year.
US President Joe Biden has tried to revive talks with Iran over the nuclear deal abandoned by former President Donald Trump in 2018, although tough economic measures remain in which Tehran insists it be lifted before any resumption of negotiations.
The United States and other Western powers that joined the 2015 agreement are at odds with Tehran over which side should first agree to the deal, making it unlikely that US sanctions affecting Iran’s economy could be lifted quickly.
However, the OPEC member’s oil exports rose in January after a boost in the fourth quarter, despite US sanctions, a sign that the end of Trump’s term could change buyers’ behavior. Since the end of 2018, there has been a sharp decline in Iranian exports to China and other Asian customers.
Dubai editorial report, edited by William Maclean and Grant McCool