On the afternoon of October 25, Minister for Science and Technology Wan Gang met with a visiting Iranian delegation led by Vice-President for Science and Technology Affairs Sorena Sattari. The two sides exchanged views on pushing forward China-Iran cooperation in science and technology innovation and reached broad agreement.

Minister Wan Gang welcomed Vice-President Sattari for his visit to China and briefed the Iranian side on the innovation-driven development strategy implemented by the Chinese government. Minister Wan Gang pointed out that science and technology cooperation is a part of the bilateral relations between China and Iran and that both sides support their scientists to exchange and cooperate in nano, information, biology, healthcare and agriculture. The Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Science Park between the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology of Iran (MoU) during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Iran in January this year further enriched bilateral cooperation in science, technology and innovation. He also hoped that the two sides could strengthen multi-field cooperation, put into practice the MoU, expand people-to-people exchanges, and discuss joint funding mechanism for scientific research.

Vice-President Sattari agreed with Minister Wan Gang. He said that the Iranian government attached importance to knowledge innovation and had made achievements in high-tech industries, such as electronic information, nano materials, biology and aerospace. Vice-President Sattari also said that the Iranian government would work with the Chinese government to deepen bilateral cooperation in STI, engage in close communication and strengthen cooperation and exchanges in the fields of talent training, capacity building and science park building to support national social and economic development and tighten the ties between the two countries.