SHANGHAI - Ebrahim Raisi’s sudden martyrdom as a result of a helicopter crash on May 19, 2024, was a huge loss not only for Iran but also for the region. During his presidency of 34 months, he did make changes in the country and in the region as well. His foreign policy legacies were numerous, and the following four are particularly worthy of mentioning.

The first should be his contribution to regional reconciliation. Iran’s policy for resuming diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia took place with the direction of the Leader, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei; It was the continuation of that of Raisi’s predecessor, and was within the context of new regional dynamics. But Raisi’s personal involvement should be one of the most important factors as he was one of the policy makers and the very person implemented the policy.
    
It was shortly after President Raisi’s visit to China in the middle of February 2023 that China, Iran and Saudi Arabia started the negotiation in Beijing in early March 2023, which finally resulted in a diplomatic breakthrough. Or to put it another way, Raisi’s visit to Beijing served as a very important momentum or background to the great diplomatic move. It was reported that Raisi agreed in principle with the idea of negotiating a reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia when he was in Beijing.
    
For the rest part of the year 2023, Raisi during his presidency proceeded with the steps of the reconciliation by reestablishing diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, selecting ambassador to Saudi and opening embassy in Saudi. And Saudi reciprocated the steps. And in November 2023, Raisi travelled to Saudi Arabia to attend the special summit of Islamic and Arab countries on the Palestine issue, marking a milestone in Iran-Saudi relations.
    
Raisi’s efforts were one part but maybe one of the most important parts of the reconciliation. And without his personal efforts, the reconciliation might not have gone so smooth judging by the very complicated regional context.
    
The second should be his robust diplomacy toward Asian countries. Iran, as a great Asian civilization, would always like to categorize itself as an Asian country, and would like to use the word of West Asia to define its neighborhood instead of the term Middle East. Iranian politicians and policy makers of generations had been working hard to make Iran an integrated part of Asia, politically, economically, and in culture.
    
Raisi was one of the Presidents of Iran who had contributed greatly to this endeavor. It was Raisi who had finally finished all the procedures of joining SCO. Besides, President Raisi had visited major countries in the Asia including China, Russia and Indonesia during his 34-month presidency. Raisi was also mulling visiting India, but unfortunately had not been able to carry out the plan for various uncertainties until his martyr. Till to his death, Iran’s economic relations with Asian countries had grown in a robust way.
    
Asia has become a continent and region with very dynamic economies. Raisi’s diplomacy had greatly enhanced Iran’s position in its diplomatic landscape with Asian countries, which will greatly serve the development of the relations between Iran and Asian countries in the near and distant future.
    
The third should be his efforts to expand Iran’s diplomatic space. Despite the intentional efforts of some western countries to isolate Iran diplomatically, Iran had achieved great success in its foreign relations as Iran had many friends across the world.
    
Raisi’s 34-month presidency had seen huge achievements in Iran’s efforts in this regard. President Raisi travelled 29 times abroad during the 34 months, and his footprints were seen in 23 countries in the neighborhood, AsiaEuro continent, Latin America and Africa. President Raisi should be one of the most diligent presidents since the Islamic revolution.
    
It was also in his presidency that Iran formally joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS. The significance of Iran’s participation is mutual. While the two international organizations was able to justify its international standing by having a great civilizational regional power, Iran was able to engage with major international actors in institutionalized ways, and Iran’s status in international community was greatly elevated. 
    
The fourth should be his reasonable approach to nuclear negotiations. Nuclear negotiation has largely been a factor defining Iran-U.S. relations. the Trump administrations reneged on the JCPOA, and launched the policy of Maximum Pressure on Iran. Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA was detrimental, and the explanation from the U.S. side that the JCPOA was just an administrative agreement instead of a treaty was even more detrimental as it justifies that any U.S. administration could withdraw from a potential deal to be reached.
    
Learning the lessons of the previous engagements, Raisi and his nuclear team voiced very clearly that any negotiation with the U.S. should be based on solid commitments on the U.S. side to remove the sanctions in a verifiable way. 
But on the other hand, Iran under Raisi remained open to the negotiations. Though the negotiation in Vienna to resume JCPOA failed in September 2022, Iran and the U.S. reached an agreement, which resulted in Iran releasing U.S. prisoners in exchange for U.S. unblocking Iran’s assets in South Korea in 2023.
    
Shortly before Raisi’s martyrdom, Iran was also negotiating with the U.S. in Oman on issues related to regional tensions and the nuclear issue according to the recent interview of Ali Bagheri, the acting Foreign Minister.
    
Raisi maintained a balance between adherence to the principles and flexibilities, namely always opening to negotiations. By that approach, Raisi demonstrated not only Iran’s willingness for a negotiated solution to the disputes but also Iran’s resoluteness in safeguarding national interests.
    
All in all, despite internal and external criticism, Raisi actually stayed on reasonable course of Iran’s foreign policy. It’s easy to make complaints, but it is never easy to do something. 
    
The U.S. could not change its Iran policy due to domestic politics, and European countries were kidnapped by U.S. regarding its policy toward Iran. It was within the above-mentioned context and the unavailability of changes of international structure that Raisi changed the course of Iran’s foreign policy.
    
Anyway, Iran under Raisi’s presidency greatly expanded its scope of foreign relations, improved Iran’s standing in international community, and created necessary friendly neighborhood in favor of its domestic economic agenda. It was never an easy job.
    

Jin Liangxiang is a senior research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies