中文
By Wang Jin
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's state visit to China is his first tour to an East Asian country, since he assumed the nation's leadership role in August 2021. Raisi's visit serves as an example of the high level of mutual trust between China and Iran, as well as a milestone for their bilateral ties.
Since the United States launched its "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran in 2018, Tehran has confronted enormous economic and social pressures. The Iran nuclear talks, which began in April 2021, held eight rounds of talks by August 2022 but failed to achieve a breakthrough and the stalemate has become difficult to reconcile. After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Iran's relations with Russia drew closer, while its relations with the West deteriorated. In the second half of 2022, Iran saw several rounds of large-scale protests, and Tehran was rebuked by Western countries. It's unlikely that Iran's relations with the U.S. and European countries will improve in the near future. Accordingly, Iran is promoting its "Look East" strategy, and seeking a new path to develop its domestic social and economic sectors with China.
Iran hopes to strengthen social and economic friendly exchanges with the country, encouraging more Chinese companies and investment to enter Iran. In March 2021, China and Iran reached a comprehensive cooperation agreement, in which Beijing pledged to invest $400 billion in Iran in the next 25 years. Nonetheless, with the uncertainties of Iranian economic surroundings stemming from U.S. sanctions, and many details still under negotiation, China's investment in Iran has not shown significant growth in the past year, creating greater urgency for Iran to overcome its economic crisis. Therefore, discussing the agreement with China will be an important task during President Raisi's visit.
Additionally in the field of social and cultural exchanges, the two nations will upgrade their existing cooperation mechanisms and expand their exchange fields. Positive bilateral ties between countries are based on the mutual trust between their peoples. Before visiting China, President Raisi published an article in China's People's Daily emphasizing the support for and promotion of people-to-people exchanges, university cooperation and tourism development between Iran and China. In the future, social and people-to-people exchanges between China and Iran will deepen, laying a solid foundation for exchanges in various fields.
Finally, on political issues, Iran intends to coordinate with China over major international and Middle Eastern issues, including the Iranian nuclear topic, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the crisis in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. China has consistently called for the re-installation of the Iran Nuclear Deal signed in 2015, and asked for the U.S. to lift sanctions on Iran, and has opposed any unilateral sanctions against Tehran that are not authorized by the United Nations. Meanwhile, China has called on regional states to engage in more constructive dialogue to resolve their differences and to reduce tensions in the region.
As a new member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Iran expects to play a greater role in the organization. On February 7, just before his visit to China, Raisi signed an order requiring the foreign ministry to expedite the implementation of laws regarding Iran's accession to the SCO. On November 27, 2022, the Iranian parliament passed bills related to joining the SCO by an overwhelming majority. With all procedures completed, Iran is one step away from becoming a formal member. Iran's completion of the legal process to join the SCO demonstrates Iran's confidence in developing friendly relations with China and jointly maintaining regional stability.
For China, Iran has always been a good friend and cooperation partner. The summit between Chinese and Iranian leaders is the strongest refutation of those who hype up the claim that "China-Iran relations are declining." Bilateral relations between China and Iran would promote the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and establish a more fair, just and reasonable international order. The cooperative networks of the SCO and the BRI will help China and Iran to develop bilateral ties, which would contribute to regional stability and the establishment of a new international political order.
Wang Jin is a Middle East expert from Northwest University of China.
