By Masoud Rezaei IranReview.Org Iran and China signed a memorandum of understanding on military cooperation last week. The draft memo...
By Masoud Rezaei
IranReview.Org
Iran and China signed a memorandum of
understanding on military cooperation last week. The draft memorandum was about
cooperation between the two countries in such areas as defense, education,
technical fields, intelligence, cyber space, and fighting against terrorism.
This development is sure to get “defense diplomacy” of Iran and China closer to
reality. In the field of defense diplomacy, China ranks the second at global
level only after the United States in view of the wide scope of its activities
and its possession of necessary tools.
Image Attribute: Gen. Chang Wanquan (R), state councilor and
Chinese defense minister, meets with Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral
Habibollah Sayyari (L) in Beijing on the morning of October 23, 2014. Source: Chinese
Ministry of National Defense Photo
The importance of China’s defense diplomacy toward Iran entered a new phase after 2013 and the election of the new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. In May 2014, Chang Wanquan, China’s defense minister, announced that his country seeks close military cooperation with Iran. Subsequently, and in September 2014, two Chinese warships docked at the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas for five days and took part in joint military drills with Iran. At present, following the conclusion of Iran's nuclear agreement with the P5+1 group of countries in the Austrian capital, Vienna, and gradual abrogation of multilateral sanctions imposed on Iran, relations between the two countries are blessed with international legitimacy as well.
In terms of conditions in Asia and the region,
the two sides of Asia have been gaining a special importance compared to the
past. East Asia, topped by China, has turned into one of the most important
economic hubs in the world, while West Asia and mostly the Persian Gulf region,
has turned into a gravitational center for supplying energy to such emerging
powers as the People’s Republic of China. Like other global powers, the Chinese
have found out that gaining influence in the Middle East would not be possible
at all in the absence of cooperation from Iran. On the other hand, they know
that Iran needs China’s weapons and military technology in order to boost its
defense capacity in the face of all possible threats, and also to maintain
military balance in the region. These Asian links, which have been accompanied
with shifts in part of the global wealth, impart increased importance to
defense aspect of China’s relations with Iran. However, as a result of the
large-scale policies that China pursues at international level, Beijing has so
far seen Tehran as just a strategic partner, not a strategic ally. Nonetheless,
in parallel with new global developments, this trend may change in the future.
Generally speaking, China and the Middle East
are interdependent; however, Beijing considers Tehran’s role in this region as
being pivotal. For this reason, China was the biggest customer of Iran's crude
oil for a long time until international sanctions imposed on the Islamic
Republic in the past four years caused Iran's rank on the list of energy
suppliers to China to fall from third to sixth. Despite this situation, why
Iran is still playing an important role in China’s regional equations?
Regardless of the two sides’ diplomatic positions and remarks, the answer to
this question must be sought to a large extent in Iran's geostrategic value as
an important center for promoting China’s influence toward the West as a result
of which, China sees Iran as an essential factor for countering Washington’s
axial role in Asia and the United States’ naval superiority. In fact, China’s
constant support for Iran's military program means that officials in Beijing
consider the presence of a powerful Iran in the Persian Gulf region as being in
line with their interests. Therefore, they hope to use Iran as leverage to
mount pressure on the American forces and limit the possible pressure that the
West would be able to exert on China in the event of future disputes between
China and the United States in the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.
Therefore, the potential for the expansion of
relations between Iran and China in strategic terms is no less than the
potential for developing economic ties between the two countries. Iran is facing
various regional challenges and is trying to expand its sphere of influence for
which it needs to have foreign allies with good reputation on its side. On the
other hand, China needs Iran in line with its large-scale and strategic
equations. According to a new document recently published by the United States
Naval Institute, China aims to protect security of its interests in other
regions of the world and in doing this, it seems only logical for China to get
aligned with Iran. Iran is the sole big and powerful country in the region,
which is not an ally to the United States and its maritime and land routes are
of vital importance to China. So, it is not strange that military officials on
both sides have already indicated their willingness to expand their cooperation.
In fact, Iran is at the core of a number of
China’s key strategic interests. As a result, energy and trade are not the sole
available grounds for cooperation between the two countries. Beijing is
actively following up on the famous “One Belt, One Road” initiative, which
includes the Maritime Silk Road as well as the Silk Road Economic Belt of the
21st century. The goal of the initiative is to turn into a major force which
will set the direction for continued economic growth of China. This initiative
is, to some extent, related to the axial role of Iran. That is, promoting
strong defense relations with Iran is also of geo-strategic importance to China,
because Iran is located on one of the two land bridges that connect China to
the West and, for this reason, is of high geo-strategic value and importance to
Beijing. The second land bridge crosses from the margin of the northern coast
of the Caspian Sea on the side of Kazakhstan toward southwestern part of Russia
in Caucasus. However, Iran is the more important route out of these two
existing land routes because it connects China both to Europe and the Persian
Gulf.
The Chinese are smart enough to know that
bolstering their defense diplomacy with Iran, in view of the sensitivities of
Iran's Leader and his distrust toward development of Iran's relations with the
West, will guarantee protection of their interests along this geo-strategic
axis. Therefore, importance of the Islamic Republic of Iran for China, in view
of this continental leverage, goes far beyond its domestic market or even its
role as a source for supplying energy to China. As a result, if the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, which has been signed by Iran and the West, ends
in the removal of international sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, in
that case, China would undoubtedly boost its cooperation with Iran in defense
and strategic fields. The nuclear agreement can also pave the way for full
membership of Iran in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and this is why one
could assert that among other countries, China is the main winner of this
agreement. Therefore, in the near future and after an interregnum of 13 years,
we can witness an official visit by the Chinese president to Iran, during which
the two countries will certainly conclude a host of agreements in various
fields.
Key Words: China, Iran, Strategic
Considerations, Defense Diplomacy, Memorandum of Understanding, Military
Cooperation, Hassan Rouhani Chang Wanquan, West Asia, Persian Gulf, Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, Rezaei
About The Author:
About The Author:
Masoud Rezaei, Ph.D. in International Relations & Visiting Research
Fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies
AIDN: 001-11-2015-0386
This article has been originally published at IranReview.org on October 19, 2015. All rights are reserved by the Original Publisher.
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