Iran is seeking to increase its ties with China. This trend goes back several years, as the Islamic Republic approved a 25-year agreement with Beijing that is supposed to see massive investment in Iran by China.
However, Iran wants to move things along faster as it sees how it’s losing ground in places like Syria. While Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seeks to continue to invest in proxy militias and waste billions on foreign wars, Iran’s current government understands that diplomacy and bilateral ties with countries are where its future lies.
This matters for Israel and the greater Middle East because Iran-China ties could make Iran more powerful and bring Beijing deeper into the region. It could also result in either empowering the IRGC or reducing the IRGC’s influence, depending on how things change in Tehran.
Toward that end, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Saturday to discuss different aspects of cooperation.
This was the first major visit to China by an Iranian official under the new Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, as the two countries continue working on what they call a “comprehensive strategic partnership document.” Iran considers its current strategic relationship with Beijing to be “ironclad,” its foreign minister said.
Araghchi also met Nurlan Yermekbayev, the new secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), in Beijing. The SCO is one of several important economic blocs that Iran is seeking to work with in the future, including BRICS and the D-8, which just met in Cairo.
“Araghchi, while meeting with Yermekbayev on Saturday afternoon, referred to the increasing importance of the SCO for advancing multilateralism and ensuring the security and political interests of member countries,” Iran’s state-run IRNA noted.
Members of the SCO
The SCO “can play an impactful and growing role in enhancing multilateralism and strengthening cooperation among member countries in various security, political, and economic fields, the top Iranian diplomat underscored,” the report added.
“Yermekbayev described Iran’s capacities for further strengthening the position and role of the SCO as very important and welcomed the initiatives proposed by Iran to expand activities within the grouping’s economic, banking, and commercial spheres.”
The SCO includes China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, and Belarus.It also has observer states, like Mongolia and Afghanistan, and it has dialogue partners in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives, and Myanmar. Turkey, like Iran, is also seeking closer ties with non-western economic blocs.
Araghchi and his Chinese counterpart also discussed the situation in the Middle East.
“The Middle East belongs to its people, and it should not serve as a battleground for the interests of major powers. The future and destiny of Middle Eastern countries must be determined by their own peoples,” a statement from both envoys said. “The international community must respect the national sovereignty, security, stability, unity, and territorial integrity of Middle Eastern countries,” it added.
The two officials also discussed “the issue of Palestine,” where they said the “legal rights of Palestinians must be restored, and the Israeli occupation must come to an end.” The countries also discussed the need to supply humanitarian aid to Gaza, among other issues.
IRNA noted, “They also stressed that the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon must be thoroughly implemented. In Syria, the top diplomats called for serious efforts to combat extremism and terrorism, establish internal reconciliation, and dispatch humanitarian aid to the Syrian people.”