Tehran, China vow to broaden mutual cooperation

Tehran, July 7, IRNA – Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi and Chinese Ambassador to Iran Chang Hua late on Tuesday underlined the need to expand bilateral relations, especially in the field of metro development and reducing air pollution. Hanachi hailed longstanding relations between the two countries, saying that Iran and China are the two ancient civilizations in Asia with numerous cultural affinities. Referring to broad collaboration between Tehran and Beijing in the field of public transportation, he added that most of the equipment for lines and wagons used in the Tehran metro has either been imported from China in the form of a complete knocked down (CKD) assembly line or made in cooperation with Chinese consultants in Iran, and this cooperation is still ongoing. Tehran Mayor described Beijing's efforts to counter and reduce air pollution as successful, saying air pollution and traffic is one of the problems of metropolises, but if a metropolis manages to control pollution and increase the number of clean days, it shows the city's continuous and systematic planning of that city. "Tehran is interested to use Beijing's experience in this area, as the United Nations has cited Beijing's experience as rare and successful in controlling air pollution. And this shows that the increase in the number of healthy days and the blue sky in Beijing has been the result of a medium- and long-term plan," he said. Slamming the US sanctions amid coronavirus pandemic, Hanachi said that it has not been customary in the world not only not to help each other but also impose restrictions in times of crisis, such as floods, earthquakes, or now the corona pandemic. Chinese envoy, for his part, described Tehran as an ancient and innovative city with very modern infrastructures, saying that Iran-China relations are historic and longstanding. Tehran and Beijing singed sisterhood agreement in 2015, he recalled, saying that after that deal, Tehran has been the fifth friendly city of Beijing. Relations between China and Iran have been growing since the outbreak of the coronavirus, and they have always supported each other, he said.