On February 24, 2023, Professor Ding Long of the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University was interviewed by International Business Daily on China-Iran economic and trade cooperation (see International Business Daily, February 24, 2023, page 1), the full text of which is as follows.
China and Iran release strong signals to strengthen economic and trade cooperation
Iranian President Leahy visited China recently. During the visit, China and Iran exchanged in-depth views on promoting the development of bilateral economic and trade relations and reached a series of positive results - signing more than 20 cooperation agreements including crisis management, tourism, communication and information technology, environment, international trade, intellectual property rights, agriculture, export, healthcare, media, sports and cultural heritage.
Insiders believe that the above-mentioned results release a strong signal of strengthening economic and trade cooperation between the two sides and will strongly promote the China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level.
Comprehensive cooperation plan expected to accelerate the implementation
According to reports, one of the main purposes of Leahy's visit is to promote the implementation of the comprehensive cooperation plan signed between China and Iran in 2021, especially in the economic and trade fields.
Ding Long, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, told International Business Daily that although this is the first visit of Leahy to China during his tenure, in fact, high-level contacts between China and Iran in recent years have always ‘kept pace’, especially under the leadership of the head of diplomacy, China-Iran relations show a comprehensive development momentum.
The trade volume between China and Iran reached $15.8 billion in 2022, up 7 percent year-on-year. China has become Iran's largest trade partner for 10 consecutive years. Lu Jin, an expert on Iran at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with International Business Daily that for many years, Iran has been an important trade partner, source of crude oil imports, engineering contracting market as well as investment destination for China in the Middle East. China is Iran's largest trade partner, the largest export market for oil and non-oil products and an important source of foreign investment. In recent years, the two sides have given full play to their complementary economic and trade advantages and carried out a series of cooperation in transportation infrastructure through the joint construction of the ‘Belt and Road’, making positive contributions to the economic and social development of the two countries and the region.
‘In the past few years, China-Iraq trade has moved forward in interaction and achieved good results, but objectively speaking, the volume is still not large, compared with China's trade volume with the members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf of $230 billion, not in a weight class. To further strengthen trade cooperation, we need to accelerate the implementation of the China-Iran comprehensive cooperation plan in the future.’ Sun Degang, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at Fudan University, told the International Business Times bluntly.
Sun Degang analysis, in the field of economic and trade, the biggest characteristic of the two countries is complementarity, ‘China has a complete industrial system, can help Iran in energy extraction, infrastructure, agriculture and other aspects of technological upgrading; Iran's oil and gas reserves in the world's top, China is the world's largest energy importer, the two countries in the energy supply and demand cooperation space is larger ’.
In addition, Lu Jin said, in recent years, Iran vigorously develop manufacturing and knowledge-based economy, pay attention to the exchange with China in the field of technology and science, the two sides in the 5G network communication infrastructure construction, electronic communication equipment, artificial intelligence and satellite communications and other areas of cooperation is promising.
Avoiding risks to strengthen the foundation of economic and trade cooperation
In addition to promoting the implementation of the China-Iran comprehensive cooperation plan, promoting high-level contacts between the two countries, increasing political mutual trust and consolidating the foundation of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries is another major focus of Leahy's visit.
‘In the complicated international situation, both China and Iran have a realistic need to deepen cooperation, but they also face multiple risks and challenges.’ Sun Degang said, political risks, as the United States and the West to strengthen the ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ of Iran, China to promote cooperation with Iran to form a number of interference factors; in addition, the Arab countries and Iran's relations are more complex, but also to bring some interference in China-Iran economic and trade cooperation.
In terms of financial risks, Sun Degang said, ‘The main problem is that Iran is excluded from SWIFT (System for the International Settlement of Funds), resulting in its financial payments not being able to converge with international standards, which brings certain challenges to Sino-Iranian business cooperation.’
Ding Long said that despite the many challenges, China and Iran have strong political trust and willingness to cooperate, with strong economic complementarity, and Leahy's visit demonstrates his firm determination to ‘look east’. Under the new situation, the two sides will jointly study how to deepen cooperation, avoid risks and promote pragmatic cooperation between China and Iran to move forward.
Facing up to the challenges, opportunities are on the side. Sun Degang believes that future Sino-Iranian economic and trade cooperation is expected to achieve greater development under the multilateral platform. Before this visit to China, Leahy signed an order to implement the law on Iran's membership in the SCO. China and Iran can strengthen coordination and cooperation under the framework of SCO, which will help Iran to successfully dovetail with the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. At the regional level, China and the Arab countries are working together to build a Sino-Arab community of destiny, which is conducive to the easing of political relations between Iran and the Gulf Arab countries and promoting political trust through economic and trade exchanges. In addition, Iran's withdrawal from SWIFT has created conditions for promoting China-Iran RMB cross-border settlement.
‘I believe that under the joint leadership of the two leaders, the trade volume between China and Iran is expected to exceed $30 billion in the near future.’ Sun Degang is confident about this.
Source: International Business Times
(The views in this article are only the personal views of the author or the interviewee, and do not represent the position of this research institute)
