On the afternoon of 30 October 2013, Zhang Dejiang, Chairman of China's National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, held talks at the Great Hall of the People with Iran's Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani.
Zhang Dejiang said that the ancient Silk Road connected the people of China and Iran together and the friendship and cooperation between the two countries have a long history. In recent years, China-Iran relations have maintained a momentum of positive and stable development and are now at an important stage linking the past to the future. The exchanges and cooperation in the fields of politics, economy, people-to-people and cultural contacts have yielded positive outcomes. President Xi Jinping held an important meeting with President Hassan Rouhani during the SCO Bishkek Summit last month and they reached a lot of important consensus. It set the direction for the development of China-Iran relations in the new period. China attaches great importance to the traditional friendship between the two countries. China is ready to work with Iran to earnestly implement the important consensus reached between the heads of state of the two countries, to develop new ways of thinking on cooperation, to explore new ways of cooperation, to take new steps towards cooperation and to unceasingly open up a new landscape for cooperation so as to jointly push for stable development of bilateral relations.
Zhang Dejiang said that exchanges between the legislative bodies are important part of China-Iran relations and have played an irreplaceable role in enhancing the understanding and friendship between the two peoples and promoting the development of bilateral relations. In recent years, the NPC of China and Iran's Majlis have always maintained friendly exchanges. The NPC of China is ready to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Iran's Majlis to expand exchanges between special committees and friendship groups and to learn from each other for the experience on legislation, supervision and state governance, so as to create a sound, favourable and stable legal environment for bilateral practical cooperation and to further leverage the important role of legislative bodies in pushing forward bilateral relations and other fields.
Zhang Dejiang as well briefed the guest on the NPC system and the 5th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress that was just concluded.
Larijani said that Iran highly values developing friendly relations with China and appreciates China's important role in international and regional affairs. My current visit is aimed to promote Iran-China parliamentary exchanges so as to push forward exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in the fields of economy, trade, energy and culture. Iran's Majlis is ready to work with the NPC of China to do more positive work for promoting friendly relations between the two countries in wider areas.