China's deepening relationship with Iran has significant international repercussions.
The two countries' diplomats have recently signed a number of agreements on increasing trade turnover and investments, which include expanding Iranian supplies of oil and raw minerals to China. Praising the relationship, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad stated that bilateral trade between the two states could soon reach an annual level of $100 billion.
The intensification of bilateral Russian-Chinese ties and its possible detrimental effect on the Russian Federation's relations with both countries has been noted by Russian analysts, Nezavisimaia Gazeta reported.
Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, observed, "China now occupies the place in the world that was allocated to the USSR in the times of the Cold War. And in the sphere of arms exports to countries like Iran, it occupies the niche that until recently belonged to Russia. We showed ourselves to be (to Iran) an unreliable arms supplier. And this gave great trump cards to China. China is going to occupy those niches that were ours, in the first place the Iranian one. The Chinese can offer the Iranians their military technologies and credits to build infrastructure facilities, and political support in the UN Security Council."
By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More