Vice Minister Niu Dun met with Mahmoud Hojjati, Minister of Agriculture of Iran in Tehran on May 11, 2014. The two sides signed the Memorandum of Understanding between China and Iran on Strengthening Agricultural Cooperation.
Niu noted that geographically, Iran sits at the intersection linking the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road, and under the framework of China's strategy to build closer ties with countries in the above regions, both China and Iran enjoy huge potential for cooperation.
In order to deepen bilateral collaboration in the future, Niu put forward a three-point proposal that first of all, the two sides should give full rein to China-Iran Joint Committee on Agricultural Cooperation as an important and major channel of communication, and promote the exchange of agricultural S&T staff, senior management teams, experts and scholars; second, both sides should cement cooperation in the areas of
livestock production, crop production, fisheries, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, farm machinery & tools, and so on; and thirdly, the two countries should intensify the efforts in advancing germplasm exchange and technological communication.
Minister Hojjati fully agreed with Niu on the above remarks and proposal. He expressed that Iran is keen to enhance cooperation with China in those key areas and promote the common development of agriculture in both countries.
Before meeting with Minister Hojjati, Niu also met with Dr. Zand and Dr. Salehei, Iranian Deputy Ministers of Agriculture. Both sides discussed and reached consensus on cooperation details.
During his visit, Niu also conducted field studies on several Iranian agricultural sectors like S&T research, education, production, irrigation and farm-produce processing, and so forth.