Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to deepen ties with Tehran after meeting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Beijing, weeks after the United States said it would increase pressure on China to stop buying Iranian oil .
Raisi’s trip, the first by an Iranian president since his predecessor Hassan Rouhani in 2018, also comes amid signs of tensions between Tehran and Beijing following recent complaints from Iran about a lull in bilateral relations between the two . Meanwhile, the US wants to enforce sanctions on Iranian crude exports to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities.
“China will develop friendly cooperation with Iran no matter how international and regional situations change,” Xi said during a meeting with Raisi in Beijing on Tuesday, according to Chinese state broadcaster. He did not directly mention the oil trade.
Shortly before leaving for Beijing on Monday, Raisi said there was a “serious regression” in his country’s relationship with China and that economic and trade ties had been unsatisfactory, according to the state-run Republic News Agency. islamic
Last month, an Iranian trade official said Russia had officially overtaken China as Iran’s largest foreign investor.
China remains the largest buyer of Iran’s oil and one of the main negotiating powers in stalled talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. China’s oil market is rebounding this year after the government ended abruptly with the Covid Zero restrictions preventing growth.
Last week, the United States sanctioned three companies in Singapore and Malaysia for their role in allegedly facilitating the sale and shipment of millions of dollars worth of oil and petrochemicals on behalf of a company with known connections to the Iran.
On Monday, Raisi said he wanted to address the status of a 25-year grand strategic pact that was agreed in 2020 and has yet to be implemented. Xi said China was ready to start the plan, without giving details, and pledged to increase Iran’s agricultural imports and increase trade in industry and infrastructure.
Xi did not stop in Iran when he visited Saudi Arabia in December, which he did on a tour of the Middle East in 2016. Instead, Beijing sent Vice Premier Hu Chunhua, who had recently been dismissed from the highest spheres of power.
Several Iranian lawmakers and officials sharply criticized the trip after Xi released a joint statement with the Sunni kingdom that referred to Tehran’s “regional destabilizing activities” and its “support for terrorist and sectarian groups.”
At the time, Iran was facing widespread street protests that have since subsided following a violent government crackdown. During Hu’s visit, Iran hanged the second of four people in the long-running unrest sparked by the death of a woman in police custody in September.
