Iranian parliament speaker to visit China next week

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani will pay an official visit to China late in October. During his visit to China slated for October 29-November 1, Larijani will meet with senior Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, a parliament statement said. The visit will come at the invitation of Zhang Dejiang, the chairman of China\'s Standing Committee of the National People\'s Congress (NPC), which is the country\'s top legislature. The Iranian parliament speaker will discuss promotion of parliamentary, political, economic and cultural ties between Iran and China during his meetings with Chinese officials and lawmakers. Late in August, Iran and China held a conference to explore the two countries’ bilateral ties and mutual cooperation. The Fourth Iran-China Relations Conference opened concurrent with the 2013 meeting of the two countries’ friendship group in Beijing. A number of Iranian and Chinese figures, including Iran’s Ambassador to Beijing Mehdi Safari and some other experts took part in the conference. During the conference, head of Chinese friendship group with foreign countries described Iran and China as two influential countries in the region and the world. Also speaking during the conference, Head of Iran-China Friendship Group Ahad Mohammadi pointed to the age old relations between the two countries, and said, “Tehran and Beijing should use all the existing opportunities to further enhance their relations.” Trade between Iran and China in the past year was estimated at $45bln. Iran is currently China\'s third largest supplier of crude, providing Beijing with roughly 12 percent of its total annual oil consumption.