Iran President Hassan Rouhani arrived in China on Friday afternoon to attend the summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
China on Thursday launched a freight train service that connects its northern regions to Iran’s capital Tehran in what could be a major connectivity project of vital importance to the flow of trade between the two countries.
Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administrations latest report shows China remains Iran’s top trading partner.
Iran’s media say the country’s national airline Iran Air has signed an agreement with a Chinese company to provide funding for the company’s plane purchase campaigns – most notably those pursued with Airbus and Boeing.
The third, fourth and fifth cargo trains from China to Iran are due to arrive in Tehran by the end of this week, the deputy head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, Mostafa Davoudi, told Financial Tribune.
China has opened a $1.7 billion line of credit for the electrification of the 926-km railroad from Tehran to the eastern city of Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi Province, five months after a contract was signed for the project in Tehran.
Indications are growing that China is already cementing its foothold in the Iranian economy through a heavy campaign of investments in the country’s infrastructure projects.
The latest market figures show the level of trade between Iran and China increased by almost a quarter over the past eight months.
China has signed an agreement with Iran to provide a credit line of $10 billion for its infrastructure projects.
The total value of bilateral trade between Tehran and Beijing in the first half of 2017 increased by 31 percent compared to the amount for a year earlier, the East Asian country’s customs data showed.