Alwaght- Iran and china signed an agreement to boost their military and defense cooperation as well as the fight on international terrorism.
Tehran hosted Chinese Defense Minister General Chang Wanquan for meeting on defense and military cooperation that led to the signing of a pact that will facilitate future military relations between Iran and China.
The agreement was inked by Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan and his Chinese counterpart General Chang Wanquan in Tehran on Monday.
“The development of [Iran’s] long-term defense-military relations and cooperation with China is among the top priorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s defense diplomacy,” Dehqan said in the meeting.
“We assess the visit of the Chinese defense minister in line with this (Iran’s defense diplomacy),” Brigadier General Dehqan added.
“Today, foreign meddling and lack of respect for the national sovereignty of countries have turned the West Asia into a hotbed of crisis and insecurity in the world and led to [the emergence of] terrorism and its spread throughout the world,” Dehqan said.
He added that the US and some regional countries are supporting terrorism and the scourge is overflowing into Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus as well as other regions.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, with the great experience that it has acquired over the recent years in the anti-terror campaign, expresses its readiness to make a collective move in order to fight this threat and believes that China can play a very important role in this regard,” Dehqan said.
The agreement envisions, inter alia, counterterrorism efforts and exchange of experiences in personnel training between the two militaries.
Also, in the meeting, the Chinese defense minister appeared confident of stronger defense ties with Iran, citing common regional and international interests.
He also underscored the importance of a full implementation of defense agreements as the way forward, expressing hope for a new chapter in defense cooperation.
For his part, the Chinese defense minister said Iran has an important position in the region in political, economic, security, military and cultural fields.
He added that the two countries have common interests in many regional and global issues which have prepared the ground for the expansion of defense-military cooperation.
Dehqan had traveled to China in May 2014 to negotiate mutual visits and personnel training cooperation between the two countries.
Back in April 2015, the Iranian and Chinese defense ministers, who were in the Russian capital to attend the fourth Moscow International Security Conference, held a meeting and discussed Tehran-Beijing relations as well as the issue of the ISIS terrorists and the extent of their activities in East Asia.
