The first shipment via the newly completed China-Iran rail corridor arrived in Iran on Sunday, officially launching the overland trade route as part of China’s expanding Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) into the Middle East.
According to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, a freight train carrying solar panels from Xi’an in eastern China arrived at the Aprin Dry Port near Tehran after a 15-day journey. The train traversed Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan before reaching Iran, significantly cutting transport time compared to the 40-day sea route from Shanghai to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
The new rail corridor not only shortens delivery times but also reduces transportation costs, bolstering economic ties between China and Iran.
The railway is part of a broader regional effort to interlink rail networks across Eurasia. Earlier this month, representatives from Iran, China, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan met to discuss integrating their systems into a seamless trade route connecting Asia to Europe.
Strategically, the corridor provides a route completely outside the reach of Western sanctions and geopolitical interference, allowing China and Iran to conduct trade without relying on sea lanes or territories controlled or influenced by the West.
China remains the largest buyer of Iranian oil, despite U.S. efforts to halt Tehran's energy exports. Last month, President Donald Trump warned that any country purchasing Iranian oil would face exclusion from doing business with the United States, although his administration has yet to implement such policies formally.
The opening of overland corridors like this one could undermine the effectiveness of Western sanctions by offering alternative pathways for sanctioned countries to access global markets.
In a related development, China and Pakistan recently agreed to expand the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into Afghanistan. The Taliban-led Afghan government is also constructing a highway through the Wakhan Corridor to establish direct access to China and has expressed interest in serving as a conduit for Iranian oil exports to Chinese markets.
The rapid growth of these overland routes signals a deepening shift in global trade infrastructure, with Beijing positioning itself as the central hub of an emerging multipolar economic order.