Iran’s growing friendship with China

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33061, 31 October 1972, Page 11

Iran’s growing friendship with China

(By

RALPH JOSEPH)

TEHERAN. Iran’s new-found relations with the People’s Republic of China, established in August last year and highlighted this year by the visit of Empress Farah to Peking in September, have not opened the floodgates of trade between the two countries, as some expected. The emphasis has been more on the political aspects of the friendship—the economic relations being marked more by an attitude of cautious probing on both sides. The ties have been established at a time when both Peking and Teheran have set out to widen their diplomatic contacts with the world. For Teheran, which thinks diplomatically in terms of a series of increasingly larger circles of friends, China is an important member on the outer circle which can no longer be neglected. (It is interesting to note that Australia also falls within this larger circle, and attempts have recently been made to increase contacts with Canberra.) Diplomacy being what it is, both Teheran and Peking have chosen to ignore that they represent systems of government on opposite ends of the political spectrum, and the Chinese Communists at least have managed to get over the embarrassment by emphasising the struggle both countries have waged against “imperialism.” Great stress, for example, has been put by the Chinese on Iran’s triumph over the oil companies in the series of negotiations that have taken place since February last year. Old silk road A Hsinhua (New China News agency) correspondent in Teheran in a recent dis-

patch to Peking dwelt at length with the exploitation of oil by the Western companies in Iran, and Iran’s long struggle to get a better deal out of them. Needless to say, the correspondent’s sympathies were entirely with Teheran. For want of better common ground between the two countries, the Premier, Chou En-lai, also referred, in his banquet speech for the empress, to the “sabotage and obstruction by imperialism,” which has over the last quarter of a century or so, interrupted the cordial ties between them going back some 200 years. As was the case when Pakistan moved closer to Peking in the early 19605, the role of the Old Silk Road, which carried trade between the two countries as far back as two millenneia ago, was repeatedly mentioned. Not mentioned in the diplomatic speeches by either side was more sensitive political ground common to them, such as the vital interest each has in ensuring the survival of Pakistan, and the common distrust both have about the Soviet role in the Asian continental bloc. More balance The Persians consider the entry of Indian forces into East Pakistan in December as an “invasion,” nothing less. They suddenly became aware during the December war that perhaps it is only because they have Pakistan as a buffer between themselves and a chauvinistic India that they have been spared the dangers of confrontation with this large neighbour in south Asia. They would like things to remain that way, and are therefore rather keen to see a friendly Pakistan survive

on their borders, much as China is. Not lost on the Persians, also, was the unwavering friendly attitude Peking maintained towards Islamabad in 1971, when ideologically they may have been expected to take full advantage of what was really a revolutionary situation in East Pakistan. The Soviet intervention on the subcontinent also did not go unnoted. But Teheran currently has cordial, if correct, ties with Moscow and avoids utterances and attitudes that may be interpreted as hostile by the Soviets. However, Persian writers have indicated that ties with Peking should put more balance into the Soviet-Persian relationship. As Amir Taheri, a writer in “Kayhan International” subtly puts it: “Iran and China have their longest boundaries with the Soviet Union. . . . Sharing a neighbour is always an important matter in bilateral relations of any two countries.” It is what was left unsaid that has made the visits of Persian royalty to Peking so much more dramatic. Limited trade Economically Teheran’s ties with Peking have already borne some fruit. The two capitals have arrived at an aviation deal whereby the Chinese national airlines will be permitted to use Teheran airport on its planned international route going via Islamabad, Ankara and Bucharest to Tirana, in Albania. The new Chinese air route, it is reported will start about next May. In exchange, Peking has offered Iran International Airlines landing facilities in Shanghai (as Pakistan’s airlines now have). From here the Iranians plan to take a route on to Tokyo, once the Japanese find this permissible. Cur-

rently the Iranian aircraft do not fly beyond Islamabad in the east.

The setting up of ties last year was followed almost immediately by the exchange of a series of economic delegations between the two countries, and already the Persians have managed to sell some $8 million worth of cotton to the Chinese. However, the Iranians have shed all illusions of having a “market of 800 million people” opened to them by the new era of cordiality between the two countries. Somewhat to their dismay, the Iranian traders have discovered that the Chinese have managed to make themselves self-sufficient in almost everything—and at least in those commodities that Iran now produces for export. However, there has been some talk of entering into barter deals with the Chinese to purchase commodities which would come cheaper from the Chinese than from Western manufacturers. Indications are that China will do everything to encourage this, and may as a consequence buy much more from the Iranians than they actually need. There are, again, no more illusions about China buying great quantities of Persian oil. The Chinese are currently said to be selfsufficient in this also, though further industrialisation in China may force them to explore the oil markets outside their country—in the future. Currently, however, the Chinese seem to have settled for receiving technical assistance from the Iranians in the exploration and exploitation of oil resources in China. But the possibility of the sale of petrochemicals for fertilisers to the Chinese, the Iranians have noted, remains.