Iranian Foreign Minister meets in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart before Trump’s trip to China
The meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi began this Wednesday in Beijing, a week before US President Donald Trump travels to China to address, among other issues, the situation in the Middle East.
Chinese state media reported the beginning of the meeting, although details about what was discussed between the two have not yet been made public. The Iranian Foreign Ministry had reported that Araqchi would address bilateral relations in Beijing, as well as regional and international events.
The visit coincides with a fragile ceasefire in force since the beginning of April between Iran and the United States and after the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, assured this Tuesday that the offensive against Iran launched on February 28 “has ended”, and that a new phase has opened with a “defensive” operation aimed at facilitating navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, blocked by Tehran and Washington.
The Iranian diplomat’s trip comes a week before Trump’s visit to China, the first by a US president to the Asian country since 2017 and scheduled to begin on May 14. The Chinese ambassador to the UN, Fu Cong, recently warned that if Hormuz remained closed when Trump arrived in Beijing, the issue would be “inevitably at the center of the talks,” and stressed that the immediate priority should be “to avoid a new military escalation and consolidate the ceasefire.”
China has repeatedly condemned the US and Israeli attacks on Iran and has called for resolving the crisis through dialogue and negotiation, insisting that a military escalation be avoided that would affect the stability of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil transit route. The evolution of this sea route is especially sensitive for Beijing, given that around 45% of Chinese oil and gas imports transit through it.
The war has already directly increased energy and logistics costs in China and forced the authorities to temporarily intervene to limit internal fuel increases.
In this context, China announced last Saturday an order to block the application of sanctions imposed by the United States against five Chinese companies for their alleged links to the Iranian crude oil trade, arguing that these measures interfere with “normal” commercial activities and violate international law.
The Asian country maintains a delicate position: it is Iran’s main trading partner and its largest oil importer, but at the same time it depends on Hormuz for a significant part of its energy supplies and maintains close ties with the Gulf States, which have been the target of Iranian attacks. (Efe)
