An Iranian Health Ministry official says the Islamic Republic will boost cooperation with China in various fields of health and medical education, particularly the fight against the deadly coronavirus pandemic, in line with a 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership agreement recently signed between the two sides.

“The articles related to health and medical education in the Iran-China strategic document, which was inked by the two countries’ foreign ministers yesterday, will offer a bright prospect for the countries’ cooperation and will be even a turning point for signing similar agreements with other countries and health systems in years to come,” Kianoush Jahanpour, the Spokesman for Iran Food and Drug Administration (IFDA), said in a post on his Twitter account on Monday.

In his tweet, he published those parts of the deal, which stress the importance of strengthening bilateral cooperation to contain COVID-19 and similar virus diseases.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi signed the 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership agreement in Tehran on Saturday, marking a milestone in bilateral relations between the two countries.

The cooperation roadmap had been announced in a joint statement during a visit to Tehran by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2016.

In his meeting with the top Chinese diplomat, President Hassan Rouhani pointed to achievements made by Tehran and Beijing in the fight against the deadly coronavirus pandemic and called for more Chinese vaccine exports to Iran.

In late February, Iran received 250,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine from China as the country continues the nationwide vaccination of priority groups.

Besides exporting vaccines from other countries, including China, Russia and India, Iran has been working on domestic vaccines that are in the human trial phase.

Earlier this month, Iran unveiled a new COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Defense Ministry’s research center formerly headed by nuclear scientist and researcher Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated late last year.

ME