The first Chinese Studies Center of the People’s Republic of China has been launched at Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran, China.org news website reported Monday.

According to the report, the center started its work on Sunday evening during a ceremony in Tehran with the cooperation of Shanghai International Studies University of China in Tehran to become a major step forward in exchanging mutual knowledge and working together.

Considering that it is the first Chinese science center in Iran, the center is expected to provide a good platform for researchers from both countries to study the past and present states of the two countries, to deepen understanding and to establish a university base for joint academic cooperation and the prosperity of the Silk Road in the new era, the report said.

Behzad Shahandeh, a professor of Chinese studies at the University of Tehran, who began his first scientific activity in China in 1978, said during the ceremony that China was the first country in the world that did not follow the Western model of modernization and has pursued an Eastern style of development.

Jang Feng, the deputy director of the Shanghai International Studies University, said during the same ceremony, that in order to enhance the level of academic cooperation between the two universities, the two sides agreed to establish study centers at the University of China and also in Iran so that by introducing the cultures of their country to other side, they would help each other in the field of research and collaboration between researchers from both countries.

He evaluated the establishment of the Center for Chinese Studies in Iran as an important step towards the exchange and cooperation of the two countries, and underlined, “Considering that this center is the first Chinese studies center in Iran, it could be a good platform for researchers of both countries in the field of past and present state of the two countries, deepen understanding and familiarity, and create an academic foundation for joint building and the prosperity of the Silk Road in the new era.”

Gholamali Cheginizadeh, the head of the center at Allameh Tabataba’i University, also referred to his optimism over the establishment of an academy of Chinese studies, saying, “Since the Iranian government in the past five years focused its foreign policy strategy more on China, one of the goals of this center is to advise the government on foreign policy of Iran. This is while, given the new international political developments, academic institutions of the world are also trying to pay special attention to China.”