TURKEY: China's Vice President Xi Jinping holds talks with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul praising Turkey's role in Middle East disputes

Record ID: 217552

  • Title: TURKEY: China's Vice President Xi Jinping holds talks with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul praising Turkey's role in Middle East disputes
  • Date: 22nd February 2012
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (FEBRUARY 21, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MOTORCADE CARRYING CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING ARRIVING AT TURKISH PRIME MINISTER'S RESIDENCE
  • Embargoed: 8th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Reuters ID: LVA3OGVIJ3WRS0IJWAXW1OGYUVF5
  • Story Text: Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping travelled to Turkey's largest city of Istanbul and met Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday (February 21), on the last leg of a trip that also took him to the United States and Ireland.
    China's leader-in-waiting praised Turkey's growing role in trying to resolve "hot issues" such as the Iranian nuclear dispute and Middle East conflicts, on the last leg of a trip that also took him to the United States and Ireland.
    His visit to Istanbul followed earlier talks with Turkey's President Abdullah Gul in Ankara.
    Xi is almost sure to succeed Hu Jintao as Chinese president in just over a year and was feted by U.S. leaders eager to see China import more from the United States.
    Turkey and China are at either end of a political and economic axis stretching along the old Silk Road though Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan. Both have strong, sometimes competing economic interests in the region.
    At the same time, Turkey now the world's 16th biggest economy and only second to China in growth last year, has projected itself as a stable Muslim democracy, making it a key player at a time of turmoil and unrest in the Middle East.
    During the meeting with President Gul, Xi oversaw signing of signing of six bilateral economic agreements along with a memorandum of understanding between Turkish and Chinese State Televisions.
    On Wednesday, Xi attends a business forum in Istanbul, where he is likely to be assailed by exporters eager to try to bridge a gaping trade gap.
    China is Turkey's 15th biggest export market with nearly 2.5 billion dollars (USD) of Turkish goods sold there last year, a rise of 8.7 percent.
    But some 21.6 billion USD worth of Chinese goods were imported to Turkey in 2011, up 26 percent from 2010.
    During talks with Turkish leaders, the bloody uprising in Syria is likely to be high on the agenda, as the positions of the two countries on Syria have been sharply at odds.
    While Turkey has taken a leading role in pressuring Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to step down, China, along with Russia, this month blocked a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that backed an Arab plan urging him to quit.
    China has also not decided whether to accept an invitation to discuss Syria with other world powers this week in Tunisia, a meeting Turkey's foreign minister will attend and Ankara hopes will keep up pressure for Assad to step down.
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