China to enhance ‘comprehensive ties, deepen cooperation’ with Türkiye M Haris

BEIJING: China is ready to work with the Turkish government to deepen cooperation in various fields and make positive contributions to promoting regional peace and global development, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing on Tuesday.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks when meeting with Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Pointing out that building all-round, deep and high-level China-Türkiye relations is in line with the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples, Wang said that China firmly supports Türkiye in continuing to explore the path of independent and autonomous development, supports the efforts of the Turkish side to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests, and appreciates Türkiye’s support for China’s justified position on the core interests related to China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.

Wang called on the two countries to make good use of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including the China-Türkiye Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee, to enhance synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and Türkiye’s Middle Corridor initiative and to expand the fields of cooperation.

China is willing to expand imports of high-quality Turkish agricultural products, support enterprises of the two countries to continuously upgrade the level of cooperation and scientific and technological content, and closely cooperate in the fields of culture, education, tourism and aviation, Wang said.

Wang also affirmed China’s readiness to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Türkiye under multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, support the United Nations in playing a central role in the global governance system, oppose hegemonism and power politics, oppose the monopolization of international affairs by a few countries, oppose unilateralism and wrong practices such as “decoupling and the cutting of supply chains,” safeguard the stable operation of the global supply chain and industry chain, and promote the establishment of a fair and reasonable global governance system.

For his part, Fidan said that Türkiye attaches great importance to developing its relations with China, abides by the one-China principle and supports China in safeguarding its core interests and major concerns.

Fidan pointed out that Türkiye opposes confrontation between the camps, does not agree with or support any wrongful act of suppressing and curbing China’s development, and will not allow any force to engage in activities on Türkiye’s territory that undermine China’s sovereignty.

Türkiye highly appreciates China’s fair and just stance on Ukraine, the Middle East, and other issues and looks forward to playing a constructive role with China and making greater contributions to the prosperity and stability of the region and the world, Fidan emphasized.

The two sides also exchanged views and harmonized their positions on Ukraine, Palestine and other international and regional issues of common concern.

After the meeting, the two sides jointly met the press.

Noting that China is satisfied with the momentum in the development of relations between the two countries, Wang pointed out that the two sides had reached a number of important consensuses on the next stage of the development of bilateral relations and international cooperation.