TEHRAN – Iran and China have agreed to form a joint cooperative committee to enhance collaboration in key economic sectors, including agriculture, mining, petrochemicals, and joint investment, officials from both sides said during a meeting in Tehran.

The meeting was held between Bahman Abdollahi, head of the Iran Chamber of Cooperatives, and Cong Peiwu, China’s ambassador to Iran.

Both sides underscored the long-standing strategic partnership between Tehran and Beijing and explored new avenues for cooperation between cooperative enterprises in the two countries.

Abdollahi noted that Iran’s cooperative sector, with more than 104,000 active cooperatives, has remained unaffected by foreign sanctions and can serve as a reliable channel for economic engagement with friendly nations such as China. He proposed forming a joint committee to coordinate joint projects, trade missions, and specialized exhibitions in Tehran and Beijing.

He also highlighted the potential for collaboration in modern irrigation, seed and vaccine production, and animal feed technologies, as well as mineral processing and petrochemical industries.

Abdollahi added that the current trade volume between Iran and China stands at about $14 billion, but with the existing capacities, that figure could rise substantially through strengthened cooperative and industrial partnerships.

In early October, Majid-Reza Hariri, the chairman of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce, commented on the extent to which the UN Security Council sanctions would affect Iran-China relations, and stated: "Given that none of the UN sanctions are trade-related and instead pertain to the nuclear industry and some sectors of the country's missile industries, consequently, they should not impact our normal trade with China."

He added: "Although the U.S. sanctions have completely prohibited oil sales, we see that the Chinese are currently buying nearly over 90 percent of the country's oil. Therefore, UN sanctions are not related to the commercial sphere and logically should not affect these types of relations either."

Hariri further added: "The UN sanctions will have psychological and secondary effects which must be examined."

As previously announced by Abolfazl Akbarpour, the deputy head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) for planning and international affairs, the value of non-oil trade between Iran and China stood at $34.1 billion in the past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2025.

He said that importing non-oil goods worth $14.8 billion from Iran, China was the first destination of Iranian products in the past year.

He also announced that by exporting non-oil products valued at $19.3 billion to Iran, China was the second source of import for Iran in that year.

EF/MA