Iran’s transactions with its leading trade partner, China, stood at $9.66 billion in the first seven months of 2022, registering a 22.4% rise compared with the corresponding period of the year before.
Latest data released by China’s General Administration of Customs show Iran’s exports totaled $4.48 billion during the period, indicating a 23.3% year-on-year increase.
In return, China exported $5.18 billion worth of goods to Iran, registering a 21.7% YOY rise.
Bilateral trade hit $1.41 billion in July 2022 with Iran’s exports at $396.89 million and imports at $1.01 billion.
According to China’s General Administration of Customs, Iran’s trade with China in 2021 stood at $14.78 billion, registering a 1% decrease compared with the year before. Iran’s exports totaled $6.5 billion last year, indicating a 0.9% year-on-year increase. In return, China exported $8.28 billion worth of commodities to Iran, registering a 2.5% YOY decrease.
25-Year Cooperation Deal
China and Iran have announced plans for cooperation in areas such as energy and infrastructure, after they signed a 25-year cooperation agreement.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his visiting Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in the eastern city of Wuxi that Beijing continues to back efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal that the United States withdrew from in 2018, South China Morning Post reported.
The landmark China-Iran comprehensive cooperation agreement, which was signed in March last year and entered implementation phase on Jan. 14, will see the two countries expand cooperation in the fields of energy, infrastructure, production capacity, science and technology, and medicine and healthcare, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry.
Bilateral cooperation will also be expanded to third-party markets and in the fields of agriculture, fisheries and cybersecurity.
Amir-Abdollahian told China’s state news agency Xinhua that Tehran “looks forward to learning from China’s development experience and advanced technology”.
Wang also reiterated China’s position on Iran’s nuclear agreement, to which it is a signatory, saying the US bore most of the responsibility for months of stagnation in talks about reviving the deal, as it unilaterally quit the same in 2018.
The cooperation document had for the first time been discussed in 2015, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Iran.
The agreement reportedly pledges Chinese investments of $400–600 billion.
Accession to SCO
In a summit held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in September 2021, the Chinese president announced the commencement of procedures to grant Iran full membership in Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Iran’s trade with SCO member states is around one-third of its total foreign trade. It will be admitted to SCO this year, with a memorandum on the country's obligations to be signed at a summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, which will take place from Sept. 15-16, Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov said recently.
According to RIA Novosti, speaking at a special meeting in Moscow, Norov said on July 11, "This year, under Uzbekistan's chairmanship, Iran, as an observer state will ... become a full-fledged member of SCO. Besides, a memorandum on Iran's obligations as an SCO member will also be signed in Samarkand."
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently has eight full members, namely China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are observer states.
SCO’s dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. ASEAN, CIS, Turkmenistan and the United Nations are attending as guests.
Initially focused on regional security, including border conflicts and terrorism, its activities have expanded to cover trade, transport and law enforcement. However, security and economic cooperation remain priorities.
China and Russia are dominant members. Russia regards Central Asia as its sphere of influence but Chinese economic sway is growing. At an informal level, SCO is a diplomatic platform that helps address and contain potential friction, Asia Plus reported.
Uzbekistan, which holds the rotating SCO presidency, has shared a draft memorandum listing conditions for Iran's accession with other members.
Mohammad Lahouti, the head of Iran Export Confederation, said Iran’s accession to SCO is a watershed event for diplomacy, which can open up new frontiers for the country’s economy.
“Iran has unparalleled capacities through which cooperation with SCO members can be facilitated. The country is located on corridors linking north to south and west to east; Iran remains the most important corridor to cross West Asia, although many countries tried to replace it over the years,” he said.
“According to statistics, the country has one of the largest global oil and gas reserves needed by China and India, two key members of SCO.”
However, Mohsen Jalalpour, former president of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, is ambivalent.
“Is accession to SCO a really historic event? I personally believe it is; such developments are very important for Iran’s economy; they shouldn’t be regarded in passing. Yet, what is central is whether the country will be able to tap into such opportunities. Therefore, the event per se is significant but we probably won’t achieve the favorable outcome,” he wrote for the Persian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad.
“Where does my pessimism come from? The fact of the matter is that in the past few years, we did not forge any economic ties with any, I repeat, any country. Our relations, even with our neighbors were based on security and political issues. I urge you to think twice if you think I’m wrong. In relation with what country, did economic issues take precedence?”
Iran will embark on the path of becoming a full-fledged member of SCO at the next summit in September 2022, a Russian envoy to the eight-nation bloc said recently.
"We expect a memorandum to be signed in Samarkand in September 2022. This means Iran will begin the concrete process of accession," Bakhtiyer Khakimov also told reporters on the sidelines of an SCO national coordinators' meeting in Tashkent.
Khakimov said every aspiring member state has a tailored list of criteria to meet, Sputnik International reported.
