BEIJING (Dispatches) -- China said on Saturday that it would begin implementing a strategic agreement with Iran, strengthening economic and political cooperation between the two countries as Beijing blasted Washington’s sanctions on Teheran.
China and Iran signed the agreement last year after years of talks, with the wide-ranging partnership set to span areas including energy, security, infrastructure and communications.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Iranian counterpart Hussein Amir-Abdollahian announced the start of the partnership’s implementation at a meeting in eastern China’s Wuxi city on Friday, Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
China is Iran’s leading trade partner and was one of the biggest buyers of the country’s oil before then-U.S. president Donald Trump reimposed sweeping unilateral sanctions in 2018.
Iranian crude is continuing to enter the country, with China’s private companies known as teapots having established themselves as regular buyers.
Wang told his Iranian counterpart on Friday that China would continue to “oppose illegal unilateral sanctions against Iran”, the foreign ministry said.
Beijing has long sought to boost ties with Tehran, with Chinese President Xi Jinping describing Iran as “China’s major partner in the Middle East” on a rare visit to the country in 2016.
On Friday, Amir-Abdollahian pointed to the significance of the 25-year partnership agreement signed between Tehran and Beijing and emphasized that the implementation of the document would be an important event and a fundamental change in relations.
He submitted an “important” written message by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to President Xi.
Referring to the plans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of political relations between the two countries, the Iranian foreign minister voiced Tehran’s readiness to expand all-out relations with Beijing.
He hailed China’s constructive cooperation with Iran in providing more than 110 million doses of coronavirus vaccines.
Iran’s foreign minister expressed hope that the opening of China’s consulate general in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas would facilitate bilateral trade cooperation.