Turkey, China agree to enhance relations at Asian forum

By Mahmut Atanur & Yusuf Hatip

BEIJING

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi agreed Wednesday to enhance bilateral relations in areas such as counter-terrorism, joint projects and tourism.

Speaking at a meeting of an intergovernmental Asian forum in Beijing, the top diplomats stressed the need to work together against terrorism and shared ideas on how such cooperation could be increased, according to Turkish diplomatic sources.

The sources, who remained anonymous under foreign ministry protocol, said that Cavusoglu told his counterpart of Turkey’s efforts to prevent foreign terrorist fighters and human trafficking.

Beijing is hosting the fifth regular foreign ministers' meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) from Wednesday to Thursday. Nearly 40 delegations from member states and observers are expected to attend the gathering.

Wang underlined that China and Turkey are both founding members of CICA, where China assumed the chairmanship from Turkey in 2014.

He said China was ready to collaborate in efforts to establish regional security and infrastructure to promote development in the Asian region, according to a statement posted on Beijing’s foreign ministry website.

Turkish diplomat sources revealed that the foreign ministers also discussed economic cooperation and planned joint projects such as a railway across northern Turkey and a nuclear plant in the country.

They also suggested that Turkish and Chinese contractors could work together in third countries.

Cavusoglu was also set to meet his Belarusian and Ukrainian counterparts.

Established in 1992, CICA is an intergovernmental forum serving to enhance cooperation toward promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.

The bloc has 26 member states and more than 10 other countries and inter-governmental organizations have observer status.