CHINESE President Xi Jinping will have his first face-to-face discussion with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi today, state media reported.

The meeting comes days after the European Union warned that negotiations to bring Iran and the US back into a nuclear deal curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme are in “stalemate”.

China is one of the key members of the multilateral dialogue – alongside France, Germany, the UK, Russia and the United States – that is trying to revive the troubled 2015 nuclear deal.

“On the morning of September 16, President Xi Jinping will meet with Iranian President Raisi in Samarkand,” Chinese broadcaster CCTV said, announcing the meeting on the side-lines of a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) in the city in Uzbekistan.

Iran, one of four SCO observer states, applied for full membership in 2008 but its bid was slowed by UN and US sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme.

On Wednesday, Raisi said Iran still intends to pursue membership of the SCO, but several members do not want a country under international sanctions in their ranks.

Xi also met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the regional security summit – the Chinese leader’s first trip abroad since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. – AFP, September 16, 2022.