From April 24 to 27, at the invitation of the Turkish-Chinese Friendship Association, Yang Wanming, president of the Chinese Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, led a delegation to visit Turkey and met with Serakaya, vice chairman of the Justice and Development Party, Karragher, secretary general of the Istanbul City Government, Uzgair, vice chairman of the Republican People's Party, Atachi, chairman of the Turkish-Chinese Women's Friendship Cultural Exchange Association, Chapan, chairman of the Turkish-Chinese Friendship Foundation, Beschel, chairman of the Turkish-Chinese Business Development and Support Association, Ozom, deputy secretary general of the Turkish Cities Union, and Kochioğlu, chairman of the Turkish-Chinese Friendship Association. Chinese Ambassador to Turkey Liu Shaobin, Minister Cong Zhuo, and Consul General Wei Xiaodong attended the event.
During the meeting, Yang Wanming said that in modern times, China and Turkey have shared the same experience, each has achieved national independence through struggle and sacrifice, and has continuously explored an independent development path that suits its own national conditions, and has a broad common language. At present, China and Turkey are both large developing countries and emerging market countries, and share extensive common interests. Under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the China-Turkey strategic cooperative relationship has maintained a good momentum of development, and positive progress has been made in practical cooperation in various fields. The two sides have actively implemented the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, continuously enhanced political mutual trust, and supported each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns. China is ready to strengthen the synergy of development strategies with Turkey, continue to promote practical cooperation in various fields, and continuously expand and enrich the content of the strategic cooperative relationship between the two countries.
Yang Wanming reviewed the long-term cooperation between the Association and the Turkish friendship organizations with China, and said that the Turkish partners with whom we have maintained long-term exchanges and cooperation include non-governmental organizations, think tank institutions and local government alliances, covering all fields of people-to-people exchanges, and the number of partners and bilateral sister cities is second to none in the Middle East, and they have jointly made positive contributions to the people-to-people friendship between the two countries. We welcome Turkish friendship organizations, local governments and political parties to come to China this year to attend the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Association, the China-Turkey People-to-People Friendship and Cooperation Dialogue, the International Parliamentarians Friendly Exchange Forum, the China International Sister Cities Conference and other activities, so as to continuously enhance mutual understanding and promote practical cooperation in various fields.
Turkey said that the friendship between Turkey and China has a long history, and the ancient Silk Road closely links the two countries. At present, the world is facing many major challenges, and maintaining dialogue and cooperation between Turkey and China is of great significance to maintaining the prosperity, stability and development of the region and the world. At a time when the situation in the Middle East continues to be volatile, Turkey expects China to play a greater role in international and regional affairs. The Turkish side fully affirmed the important role played by people-to-people and local exchanges in enhancing mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples and promoting the development of bilateral relations, and expressed that it will continue to firmly adhere to the one-China policy, work with China to resist any attempt to deliberately undermine Turkish-Chinese relations, promote practical cooperation between the two sides in the fields of trade, investment, science and technology, youth, culture and tourism, and maintain the sustainable and healthy development of the Turkish-Chinese strategic cooperative relationship.