Pres. Raeisi will implement strategic partnership deal with China in upcoming visit: official

Iran's President Ebrahim Raeisi seeks to operationalize a 25-year partnership agreement with China during his upcoming state visit to Beijing, the president's deputy chief of staff for political affairs says.

Speaking on television on Sunday night, Mohammad Jamshidi said that President Raeisi’s three-day visit to China later this week will have both economic and politico-strategic dimensions.

Iran, he said, pursues extensive economic cooperation with China based on the partnership agreement, which was signed in March 2021, in an attempt to strengthen long-standing economic and political alliance between the two countries.

“During a visit by the Chinese deputy prime minister to Iran, negotiations were held in various committees and now we are ready to implement them,” he said.

“We have advanced the mechanisms for implementing the comprehensive agreement between Iran and China, which was a deal on paper at the beginning of this administration’s term. The agreement’s finalization will be followed up during this trip.”

China deputy premier to Raeisi: Beijing always respects Iran’s sovereignty, territorial integrity

Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi has met and conferred with the visiting Chinese deputy prime minister in the capital Tehran, with the latter stressing that Beijing has invariably recognized and respected Iran

Jamshidi also said that China’s President Xi Jinping had invited Raeisi to visit Beijing last September, during the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of State Council in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.

This will be the first state visit to China by an Iranian president in the past two decades, he noted.

The official also said that the Raeisi administration’s strategy revolves around the policy of “economic convergence”, especially with Asian countries.

Heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, Raeisi will set off for Beijing on Monday evening.

He will meet Xi in Beijing, where they will oversee negotiations and the signing of cooperation documents between the high-ranking delegations from the two countries.

Raeisi will also participate in a joint meeting of Iranian and Chinese businessmen and economic activists. He will then meet with Iranians residing in China as well as top Chinese intellectuals.

Iran and China have enjoyed close ties in recent years, particularly after the United States reinstated sanctions on the Iranian economy in 2018 after unilaterally withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement.

Tehran and Beijing signed a landmark 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership agreement in March 2021 in defiance of the US’ unilateral sanctions.

The deal officially documents the Sino-Iranian Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that was announced during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Tehran in 2016. It sets the outlines of the two countries’ cooperation in political, cultural, security, defense, regional, and international domains for the next 25 years.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk