The New York Times has obtained an 18-page draft of an agreement between China and Iran that would create a trade and military partnership between the two American adversaries.
The Chinese would gain valuable markets in financial, communications and transportation sectors in Iran, as well as a 25-year agreement to purchase Iranian oil–reportedly at a discounted price.
This partnership would significantly undermine the Trump Administration’s attempts to isolate the Iranian government after the Trump Administration unilaterally withdrew from a multinational anti-nuclear agreement in 2018. That agreement, a signature foreign policy achievement of the Obama era signed in 2015, would have prevented Iran from developing a nuclear weapon for at least a decade.
Although this agreement does not give China the ability to build military installations in Iran, the two nations would participate in joint military exercises and programs which would give China a significantly improved position in the Middle East.
According to the Times, the document starts with: “Two ancient Asian cultures, two partners in the sectors of trade, economy, politics, culture and security with a similar outlook and many mutual bilateral and multilateral interests will consider one another strategic partners.”