United against the US: China and Iran strengthen military cooperation

Created: 04/28/2022, 11:19 am

By: Sven Hauberg

China's Defense Minister Wei Fenghe (left) met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran.

© IMAGO/Zuma Wire/Iranian Presidency

China and Iran have agreed to expand their military cooperation.

One expert believes that the US sanctions against Tehran are also responsible for this.

Munich/Tehran – China and Iran want to further expand their military cooperation.

This was agreed by both sides during a visit by Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe to Tehran on Wednesday.

"We have agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation on joint military exercises, exchanges of strategy, training issues and other common areas between the armed forces of both countries to improve the security of the territories of both countries," said Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces , after the meeting.

According to Chinese state media, Wei said in Tehran that the Chinese military is willing to "maintain strategic communications with the Iranian side, use the cooperation mechanisms and promote practical cooperation in order to raise the ties between the two militaries to a higher level." .

China also supports Iran in “preserving national sovereignty and national dignity”.

Wei also met Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran.

"We are pursuing the strategic relationship independently of international developments and on the basis of mutual political trust," Raisi said, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA.

Raisi also stressed that Iran is a good place to invest in sectors such as transportation, energy and infrastructure, writes Iran's Fars News Agency.

China and Iran: Sanctions spur cooperation

Beijing and Tehran have been expanding their military cooperation for several years.

In January, both sides held a naval exercise in the northern Indian Ocean for the third time since 2019 - with the participation of Russia.

In 2021, Iran and China also signed a 25-year agreement to strengthen joint economic and political cooperation.

According to official information, a topic of conversation between Wei and the Iranian side was the 2015 nuclear agreement. In the deal, Tehran committed to disclosing its nuclear activities and thus guaranteeing that they would only be used for civilian purposes.

In return, the USA, the EU and the United Nations pledged to significantly ease economic sanctions against Iran.

However, in 2017, under Donald Trump, the United States withdrew from the agreement, which China had also signed.

As a result, sanctions were tightened and Tehran ramped up its nuclear program again.

A resumption of the negotiations is currently mainly due to the classification of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization by the USA.

After meeting Wei, Iran's president said the US wanted to put "maximum pressure" on his country, but was unable to do so.

Security expert Raffaello Pantucci from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore believes that the fact that Iran and China are now getting closer is also a sign to the United States.

"It's something they're doing in light of US sanctions," Pantucci told Bloomberg.