Iran's eastward pivot: why China is now Tehran's strategic default
Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, much of the attention was focused on efforts to advance a multipolar world order. However, the meeting also highlighted a quiet but decisive shift taking place between two of its members – Iran and China.
Iran's growing role in shaping new pathways for the Global South and Beijing's support for Tehran's accession to Brics underscore the strategic importance of this shift. Iran was officially invited
to join Brics in August 2023. This milestone signalled a more formal association with emerging powers and a strategic decoupling from Western institutions.
That same year, as Western diplomats contemplated relations with Tehran while fixating on uranium enrichment levels, Iran quietly stepped up its diplomatic presence in Central Asia, signed yuan-denominated trade agreements and boosted security cooperation and intelligence sharing with China.
This diplomatic pivot isn't built upon centrifuges or surviving sanctions. Rather, it's based on an enduring and deliberate reorientation towards the East.
Since the US unilaterally
ruptured the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018, Tehran has steadily lost faith in the reliability of Western guarantees. What once looked like temporary friction now seems like structural disillusionment. Iranian leaders seem to no longer prioritise restoring balance with Europe or the United States. Instead, the focus is on reducing Iran's exposure to the West's leverage.
Enter China. Although Iran and China established diplomatic ties in 1971, substantive cooperation was limited during the Cold War. It wasn't until the 2000s – especially under former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad – that economic and energy ties significantly grew.
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