China, Turkey Pledge Strategic Ties as Economies Grow. Turkey and China plan to build a strategic partnership by deepening their transport links and tripling trade volume from $17 billion in five years.
“We have decided to establish a strategic partnership and this meeting is a milestone on that journey,” Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said in Ankara today at a news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The decision is a “recognition of Turkey’s regional and international strength,” Wen said.
Turkey has emerged from the global financial crisis with economic growth exceeding 10 percent in the first two quarters, rivaling China’s expansion and outpacing all other Group of 20 developed economies. Erdogan has boosted ties with neighbors such as Iran, Iraq and Syria, and opened more embassies and trade missions in Africa.
The two countries aim for $50 billion in “balanced” trade annually by 2015 and will use the lira and the yuan as the means of exchange, Erdogan said.
The two countries signed eight economic agreements on bilateral trade, economic cooperation in developing countries, information technology and transport, including a pledge to build a rail link to reconstruct the old Silk Road trade route between Europe and the Far East.
“Perhaps the most interesting area of cooperation between the two is transport, as China has recently been looking to invest in transport hubs in the region,” Tim Ash, head of emerging-market research at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, wrote in an e-mailed note. “Turkey could be competing with Greece, where China is also expressing strong interest in making direct investments in port facilities.”
Military Training
Turkish newspapers reported last week that Chinese warplanes took part in a military training exercise at an airbase in central Turkey. That would be the first bilateral exercise between China and a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member. Turkey’s army hasn’t confirmed the exercise.
Wen welcomed Erdogan’s negotiations for a settlement over Iran’s nuclear program. The Turkish leader’s efforts to build relations with Islamic neighbors, and a dispute with Israel over the killing of nine Turks on a Gaza aid flotilla in May, have raised concern among some of Turkey’s allies that the country is straying from its traditional pro-Western foreign policy.
Erdogan, whose party has roots in Islamist movements, insists he’s committed to Turkey’s membership application to the European Union and its decades-old security alliance with the U.S..
Wen will meet with Turkish President Abdullah Gul later today and with business leaders in Istanbul tomorrow. His Turkey visit is the fourth and last stop on a European tour that has been overshadowed by a dispute with the European Union and U.S. over the level of the yuan.
--Editors: Ben Holland, Philip Sanders.
To contact the reporters on this story: Steve Bryant in Ankara at sbryant5@bloomberg.net; Mark Bentley in Istanbul at mbentley3@hotmail.com.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net; Riad Hamade at rhamade@bloomberg.net.
“We have decided to establish a strategic partnership and this meeting is a milestone on that journey,” Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said in Ankara today at a news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The decision is a “recognition of Turkey’s regional and international strength,” Wen said.
Turkey has emerged from the global financial crisis with economic growth exceeding 10 percent in the first two quarters, rivaling China’s expansion and outpacing all other Group of 20 developed economies. Erdogan has boosted ties with neighbors such as Iran, Iraq and Syria, and opened more embassies and trade missions in Africa.
The two countries aim for $50 billion in “balanced” trade annually by 2015 and will use the lira and the yuan as the means of exchange, Erdogan said.
The two countries signed eight economic agreements on bilateral trade, economic cooperation in developing countries, information technology and transport, including a pledge to build a rail link to reconstruct the old Silk Road trade route between Europe and the Far East.
“Perhaps the most interesting area of cooperation between the two is transport, as China has recently been looking to invest in transport hubs in the region,” Tim Ash, head of emerging-market research at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, wrote in an e-mailed note. “Turkey could be competing with Greece, where China is also expressing strong interest in making direct investments in port facilities.”
Military Training
Turkish newspapers reported last week that Chinese warplanes took part in a military training exercise at an airbase in central Turkey. That would be the first bilateral exercise between China and a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member. Turkey’s army hasn’t confirmed the exercise.
Wen welcomed Erdogan’s negotiations for a settlement over Iran’s nuclear program. The Turkish leader’s efforts to build relations with Islamic neighbors, and a dispute with Israel over the killing of nine Turks on a Gaza aid flotilla in May, have raised concern among some of Turkey’s allies that the country is straying from its traditional pro-Western foreign policy.
Erdogan, whose party has roots in Islamist movements, insists he’s committed to Turkey’s membership application to the European Union and its decades-old security alliance with the U.S..
Wen will meet with Turkish President Abdullah Gul later today and with business leaders in Istanbul tomorrow. His Turkey visit is the fourth and last stop on a European tour that has been overshadowed by a dispute with the European Union and U.S. over the level of the yuan.
--Editors: Ben Holland, Philip Sanders.
To contact the reporters on this story: Steve Bryant in Ankara at sbryant5@bloomberg.net; Mark Bentley in Istanbul at mbentley3@hotmail.com.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net; Riad Hamade at rhamade@bloomberg.net.
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Turkey and China plan to build a strategic partnership by deepening their transport links and tripling trade volume from $17 billion in five years.
Nice Info !!
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