DUBAI (Reuters) – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Iran on Friday for a visit that Iranian state media said would see the signing of a 25-year cooperation agreement between the two countries, which are subject to US sanctions.
The agreement, the final details of which have not yet been announced, is expected to include Chinese investments in Iran’s energy and infrastructure sectors.
In 2016, China, Iran’s largest trading partner and longtime ally, agreed to boost bilateral trade more than tenfold 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 agency said. state news IRNA.
Iran is tightening its stance toward the United States and European parts of 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 spokesman told state television. of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saeed Khatibzadeh.
On Thursday, China’s trade ministry said Beijing will make efforts to safeguard Iran’s nuclear deal and defend the legitimate interests of Sino-Iranian relations.
China made the comments after Reuters reported that Iran has “indirectly” transferred record volumes of oil to China in recent months, marked as supplies from other countries, even as data from the China’s customs proved that Iranian oil was not imported in the first two months of this year.
U.S. President Joe Biden has tried to rekindle talks with Iran over the nuclear deal abandoned by former President Donald Trump in 2018, while tough economic measures remain that insist Tehran insist before resuming negotiations .
The United States and the rest of the Western powers that joined the 2015 agreement seem to be facing Tehran over which side should return to the agreement first, so sanctions are unlikely to be lifted quickly. Americans who have paralyzed the Iranian economy.
However, OPEC member oil exports rose in January after a boost in the fourth quarter, despite US sanctions, signaling that the end of Trump’s term could change buyers’ behavior. . Since the end of 2018, there has been a sharp drop in Iranian exports to China and other Asian customers.
Dubai editorial report, edited by William Maclean and Grant McCool