TEHRAN – The president of Iran–China peoples friendship association has said the entity is negotiating to win a visa simplification agreement for Iranian nationals.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi made the remarks on Tuesday, almost four years after the Islamic Republic unilaterally waived visa requirements for Chinese passport holders in a bid to encourage their arrivals.

“By canceling visas, Iran has facilitated the travel of Chinese tourists and businessmen. We are also following up and I hope that China will agree to ease travel conditions for Iranian citizens by facilitating the issuance of visas,” Boroujerdi said.

“Almost everywhere we go, we see Chinese tourists, in the street, museum, market, cultural and historical places, even in the heart of nature; People from East Asia who are now determined to see the world after getting out of Corona, and in the last one year, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage has tried to introduce Iran well to the Chinese so that it becomes one of the main destinations of Chinese tourists.”

Every year, about 150 million Chinese people travel as tourists to different countries of the world. This is a great capacity and a good opportunity to strengthen the country's tourism industry, the former PM noted.

Earlier this week, the deputy tourism minister said Chinese arrivals in Iran had been soaring at a faster pace even when compared to pre-pandemic levels. “The demand for visiting Iran has been soaring among Chinese nationals,” Ali-Asghar Shalbafian said.

He made the remarks in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Lu Ying Chuang held in Tehran’s Sa’dabad historical complex. “Some 50,000 travelers from China visited the Islamic Republic during the first seven months of the year (started on March 21).”

One of the reasons behind the rise is the Chinese government’s initiative to put Iran on its list of top travel destinations, the official said. “Certainly, the inclusion of Iran as a top tourist destination by the Chinese government in the country's tourism programs has been effective in increasing these demands, therefore I would like to thank China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism and its Embassy in Tehran.”

The Chinese deputy tourism minister, for his part, said Iran and China, as heirs of two ancient civilizations, have rich capacities and can cooperate in wider fields. Currently, tourism is developing between Iran and China to gain pre-pandemic levels, he noted.

“Iran’s joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS summit has provided many opportunities for bilateral cooperation between Iran and China,” Lu Ying stated.

Iran–China peoples friendship association is a nonprofit educational organization whose stated aim is to develop and strengthen people-to-people diplomacy between Iran and China.

AFM