As the fate of the 2015 nuclear deal hangs in a balance, and with Europe wavering in doing business with Iran due to the return of US sanctions, Tehran is making a hard turn East to boost its economy, and counter mounting pressure from Western powers.
On Friday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani heads to China for an economic and security summit in the coastal city of Qingdao, where he is expected to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on bilateral relations, and the future of the nuclear deal.
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Amid rising anti-Iran sentiments from the West, analysts said, the meeting between Rouhani and Xi presents an opportunity for Tehran to further cement its economic and political ties with Beijing, and for China to reinforce its growing geopolitical influence in the region.
China’s foreign policy mouthpiece, Global Times, reported on Wednesday that Rouhani’s visit will see Iran’s “comprehensive strategic” relationship with China “upgraded to a new level”.
“Unlike the US, China will not break its promise and will ensure that China-Iran relations won’t be affected,” Hua Liming, China’s former ambassador to Iran, told the state-owned publication.
For Iran, a country that prides itself as “Neither Western nor Eastern”, US President Donald Trump’s decision to spurn the nuclear agreement, meant readjusting its policy to tilt ever closer to the East.
“Iran has had to – borrowing the phrase – ‘grin and bear it’ since late 2017, once it was certain that Trump would violate the deal,” Sumitha Narayanan Kutty, a foreign policy and defence expert at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), told Al Jazeera.
For the moment, it seems, Trump’s decision “is indeed pushing Iran Eastward”, added Ali Noorani, an Iranian journalist based in Tokyo, Japan.
