Baqeri said the document regarding the Strategic roadmap of Iran-China was prepared at the highest levels of the country and has been approved by the leadership, IRNA reported.

The senior military official made the remarks in a meeting with Deputy Chief of the Chinese Army’s International Relations and Chairman of the Iran-China Joint Military Committee Lieutenant General Shao Yuanming in Tehran on Tuesday.

He also said that the two countries are determined to develop relations, stressing that foreign animosity toward the two nations will not impact the relations between Tehran and Beijing.

Iran, China, and Russia will hold joint naval drills on Dec. 27, Russia’s TASS news agency cited a senior Iranian naval official as saying on Tuesday.

Admiral Hussein Khanzadi recently revealed that the three navies would hold military exercises in the northern Indian Ocean in the ‘near future’.

Design and planning for the drills took place last month and troops are already preparing for the exercise, he said.

The joint operation will ‘send a message to the world’, Khanzadi was quoted as saying by the Mehr News Agency.