President's bilateral meetings underscore deep collaboration
Iran
When meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, President Xi Jinping congratulated Iran on becoming a member of BRICS, saying that the decision to expand BRICS is a historic event.
Noting that the new members are all influential countries that will exert a major impact on the world, Xi said China stands ready to strengthen cooperation with Iran within BRICS and other multilateral platforms so as to bolster the healthy development of multilateralism.
Xi told Raisi that positive results have been achieved in implementing the consensus they had reached during Raisi's visit to China in February.
He said he was pleased that Iran and Saudi Arabia reached a rapprochement through the joint efforts of China and the two countries, thus promoting peace and stability in the Middle East.
President Xi expressed China's willingness to consolidate friendship and deepen mutual trust with Iran. He also called on the two countries to support each other on issues concerning core interests.
Raisi said Iran highly praised and thanked China's support for Iran to become a BRICS member. It will provide a new driving force for developing bilateral ties and help strengthen the two countries' coordination on multilateral platforms, he said.
The expansion of BRICS showed that unilateralism is currently on a downward trend, he added.
Raisi thanked Xi for playing an important role in promoting the Iran-Saudi Arabia rapprochement and expressed Iran's willingness to work with China in promoting bilateral cooperation and jointly building the Belt and Road.
