Chinese President on His Way to Iran to Sign 17 Cooperation Agreements

The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister announced that Xi Jinping, the President of China, will arrive in Iran on Friday evening, February 21, after visiting Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and during his visit, 17 cooperation agreements will be signed between the two countries. Ibrahim Rahimpour, Deputy Minister for Asia and Oceania, stated in an interview with the IRIB news agency that the Chinese President will arrive in Tehran at the head of a "high-ranking political and economic delegation" and will be officially welcomed by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at Saadabad Palace on Saturday morning. According to Rahimpour, 17 cooperation agreements in various fields, especially in economic, industrial, cultural, and judicial areas, will be signed in the presence of the two presidents. He also predicted that "very likely" during this visit, China would provide Iran with "significant" financing for projects. President Rouhani had previously stated in a press conference on January 17 regarding his Chinese counterpart's visit to Iran that "we do not forget friends during hard times and sanctions, and today we must create the grounds for further development of our relations with them." Rouhani emphasized that China could play a larger role as "Iran's first trading partner in the post-JCPOA era in terms of investment, technology, and trade, and the groundwork for this will be laid during this visit." According to the Iranian presidential website, the Chinese President will be accompanied by three Vice Premiers, six ministers, and "a large delegation of businessmen and media." This is Xi Jinping's first visit to Iran and comes about 14 years after former Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to Tehran. Last year, Hassan Rouhani visited Shanghai, China, and during his participation in the "Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia" (CICA), he called for increased economic, security, and political relations among Asian countries. According to statistics from the Chinese Customs Administration, China has been Iran's top economic partner in recent years, with the trade volume between the two countries reaching $52 billion in 2014. In 2014, China accounted for 36% of Iran's total foreign trade. The Chinese President began his five-day trip to the Middle East on Tuesday, having visited Saudi Arabia and Egypt before Iran. This visit occurs amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Riyadh over the execution of Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, a Shia cleric, and the subsequent attack on the Saudi embassy in Iran and the severing of relations between the two countries. China, by sending a diplomatic delegation to Tehran and Riyadh led by Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming, has called for a reduction in tensions between the two countries to maintain stability in the region. China is also one of the countries in the P5+1 group that reached a nuclear agreement with Iran six months ago in Vienna after lengthy negotiations.