Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi will visit China on Sept 16, where he is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as Beijing and Tehran maintain close diplomatic engagement amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.
China’s Foreign Ministry announced the visit on Tuesday, saying Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, will meet Araghchi during the trip.
The visit comes at a sensitive juncture for the region, with diplomatic efforts continuing over the conflict involving Iran, the United States and Israel, alongside concerns over energy supplies and navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Araghchi and Wang have been in frequent contact this year. During their most recent face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation foreign ministers’ meeting in Kyrgyzstan in July, Wang urged parties to return to dialogue and resume implementation of earlier understandings aimed at reducing tensions.
Araghchi, according to the Chinese account of that meeting, said Iran remained willing to negotiate and did not want the conflict to continue, while calling on China to play a role in easing regional tensions.
The Iranian foreign minister also travelled to Beijing in May for talks with Wang, during which the two sides discussed Iran-US negotiations, the Strait of Hormuz, regional security and bilateral cooperation. Wang reiterated China’s support for a diplomatic solution while stressing the importance of restoring safe navigation through the strategic waterway.
In June, Wang and Araghchi discussed by telephone a first-phase memorandum of understanding reached between Iran and the United States. China said at the time that dialogue remained the preferred route for resolving disputes and called for commitments under the agreement to be implemented.
