China, Türkiye need to advocate true multilateralism, enhance cooperation

Samarkand, The Gulf Observer: China and Türkiye need to enhance political mutual trust, earnestly respect each other’s core interests, and consolidate the political foundation of China-Türkiye strategic relationship of cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Uzbekistan on Friday morning.

In recent years, China-Türkiye relations have maintained a momentum of growth, with steady progress in practical cooperation and effective collaboration against the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi said.

Facts have shown that sound relations between China and Türkiye serve the long-term interests of both countries, and have important significance in deepening the solidarity and cooperation between developing countries, Xi said.

China and Türkiye, both being major developing countries and emerging markets, share many common interests in defending their respective rights and interests, pursuing development and rejuvenation, and safeguarding international justice, Xi said, adding that China is ready to work with Türkiye to elevate the strategic cooperative relations to a higher level.

It is important to focus on development cooperation, make good use of the various bilateral cooperation mechanisms and respective strengths, work to get more results from high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and contribute to the security of the global industrial and supply chains as well as food and energy security, Xi added.

Besides stressing the need for more bilateral cooperation, Xi also said the two sides need to advocate true multilateralism, uphold international equity and justice, and strengthen cooperation in multilateral organizations including the United Nations, the G20, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

For his part, President Erdogan noted the important progress in Türkiye-China relations in various areas and expressed his readiness to work with China to leverage bilateral mechanisms such as the inter-governmental cooperation committee to promote more fruitful trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

Given the strong complementarity between Türkiye’s “Middle Corridor” plan and China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, Erdogan hoped that intensified efforts can be made to build synergy between the development strategies of the two countries to boost common development and rejuvenation.

Erdogan also reiterated Türkiye’s firm commitment to the one-China principle.