Iran, China Sign 25-Year Strategic Cooperation Pact

The agreement, which has been kept almost entirely under wraps, was signed by the two countries' foreign ministers, Mohammad Javad Zarif and Wang Yi, an AFP correspondent reported.

Iran and China signed what state television called a "25-year strategic cooperation pact" on Saturday as the US rivals move closer together. The agreement, which has been kept almost entirely under wraps, was signed by the two countries' foreign ministers, Mohammad Javad Zarif and Wang Yi, an AFP correspondent reported. The pact, which was first proposed in January 2016, forms part of Beijing's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, a plan to fund infrastructure projects and increase its sway overseas that has been a flagship project for Chinese President Xi Jinping.