Capping an extraordinary two weeks that turned 21^st century geopolitics upside down, Iran and China on Saturday in Tehran finally signed their 25-year strategic deal.

The timing could not have been more spectacular following what we examined in three previous columns: the virtual Quad and the 2+2 US-China summit in Alaska; the Lavrov-Wang Yi strategic partnership meeting in Guilin; and the NATO summit of foreign ministers in Brussels – all key steps unveiling the birth of a new paradigm in international relations.    

The officially named Sino-Iranian Comprehensive Strategic Partnership was first announced when President Xi Jinping visited Tehran over five years ago. Tehran now describes the agreement as signed, the result of plenty of closed-door discussions since 2016, as “a complete roadmap with strategic political and economic clauses covering trade, economic and transportation cooperation.”