“China is an important country for Iran and has a big role in Iran’s foreign policy,” IRNA quoted him as saying in a Tuesday meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing.
Zarif said the trip of a high-ranking politico-economic Iranian delegation, comprising senior officials including Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, is a new beginning in Tehran-Beijing relations and shows China’s importance for Iran.
“Iran’s most strategic relations in the world is with China,” he said.
The top Chinese diplomat, in turn, stressed the importance of relations between the two countries.
“The trip of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Tehran in March 2016 has boosted the two countries’ relations to a strategic level,” he said.
A number of senior Iranian officials, including Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, Economy Minister Farhad Dejpasand and Central Bank Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati, are accompanying Zarif and Larijani in the trip.
