Iran and China are expected to sign a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the country on Friday, according to Iranian official media.
The coalition is expected to include Chinese investments in Iran’s energy and infrastructure sectors, according to a Reuters report. Little information has emerged about the agreement to date.
China, one of Tehran’s main supporters on the international stage, is also a major trading partner in Iran. It is a major market for crude exports from Iran, which has been significantly reduced by U.S. sanctions.
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Iran’s state news agency said it was “another program of this two-day trip to sign the Joint Program of Cooperation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the People’s Republic of China with the foreign ministers of both countries.”
In this photo from January 23, 2016, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, right, is meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tehran, Iran. A portrait of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini hangs on the wall. (Iran’s office of chief executive via AP)
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers relieves Islamic Republic from international sanctions due to limitations on its nuclear program, but former US president Donald Trump called the U.S. from the contract in 2018, forcing Iran to walk back on their own promises, breaking the boundaries of uranium enrichment and other measures. Several other powers in the world remain committed to the agreement.
U.S. President Joe Biden wants to negotiate tougher conditions for an agreement with Iran, including by limiting missile production and unbalancing actions in the region. Iran has handled such talks and is urging the U.S. to return to the treaty before returning to compliance.
Organizations contributed to this report
