Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is expected to pay a state visit to China this week at the request of President Xi Jinping, Beijing confirmed on Sunday.
The visit, scheduled for Tuesday to Thursday, is Raisi’s first to China since 2021 and intends to strengthen ties between the two countries, both rivals of the United States.
FILE: In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for a photo on the sidelines of a meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO ) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 16, 2022. (Shen Hong/Xinhua via AP, File)
Raisi will meet Xi and their delegations will sign cooperation documents, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA. Meeting with Iranian and Chinese entrepreneurs and Iranian expatriates in China is also part of his itinerary, the report added.
The two leaders met last September in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, when Xi stressed China’s support for Iran.
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“Cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will give China and Iran more room for cooperation,” Zhu Yongbiao, executive director of the Research Center for the Belt and Road, told the Global Times. Road. “It is foreseeable that after this meeting, China-Iran relations will enter a new, higher stage.”
In December, Raisi pledged to remain committed to deepening the strategic partnership during a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua in Tehran.
Chinese President Xi Jinping looks to Afghanistan to broaden China’s growing economic interests. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)
China is a major buyer of Iranian oil and a major source of investment in the Middle Eastern country. In 2021, Iran and China signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement that covered major economic activities from oil and mining to industry, transportation and agriculture.
Both countries have had strained relations with the United States and have sought to project themselves as a counterweight to American might alongside Russia.
Washington accused Iran of selling hundreds of attack drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine and fined the executives of an Iranian drone manufacturer. At the same time, ties between Moscow and Beijing have strengthened.
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Iran marked the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution on Saturday amid nationwide anti-government protests and heightened tensions with the West.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
