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China seeks Turkish support for its policies on Xinjiang
- Beijing’s main aim in far western region is fighting terrorism and separatism, Foreign Minister Wang Yi tells his Turkish counterpart on trip to Ankara
- Uygurs in Turkey fear they could be extradited to China under new agreement between the two countries
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China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi sought to win support for Beijing’s policies on Xinjiang during his visit to Turkey, while also pledging to buy more Turkish products and agreeing to a currency exchange deal to help alleviate the country’s economic problems.
Wang met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Thursday during a trip to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
He told Cavusoglu that the essence of Beijing’s Xinjiang policy was fighting terrorism and separatism.
According to a statement released by the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang urged Cavusoglu to extend his support for China on issues related to its core interests, just as Beijing supported Turkey’s sovereignty and its right to choose a social system and model of economic development.
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He suggested the two sides make use of cooperative mechanisms to increase exports of Turkish products to China, local currency settlements, infrastructure construction and people-to-people exchanges.
Turkey is facing currency, banking and sovereign debt crises, which have led to a depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar, high inflation and a widening trade deficit.
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