Xinjiang issues not on the agenda of Turkic Council’s online summit

Name: Global brands face backlash in China for rejecting Xinjiang cotton
Uploaded: 2021-04-02T15:00:10.000Z
Duration: 2 min 38 s
Description: Global brands face backlash in China for rejecting Xinjiang cotton

Member nations discuss cooperation on trade and fighting Covid-19 but avoid talking about Chinese region that has been the focus of international headlines in recent weeks

Countries share China’s views on fighting terrorism in Central Asia, experts say

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A demonstrator wearing a mask painted with the colours of the flag of East Turkestan takes part in a protest in Istanbul on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Amber Wang

Published: 11:00pm, 2 Apr 2021Updated: 12:02am, 3 Apr 2021

It may have been the subject of news headlines around the world in recent weeks, but Xinjiang was not on the agenda for an informal meeting of the Turkic Council on Wednesday.

The Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States, as the group is officially known, consists of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Opening the meeting, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the council’s goal was to “transform the Turkic world into one of the most important economic, cultural and humanitarian regions of the twenty-first century”.

He also called for greater cooperation on trade and education, and for member states to share their experiences of fighting Covid-19.

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Global brands face backlash in China for rejecting Xinjiang cotton

While the summit did not mention China, Zhang Ning, an expert on Central Asia studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said the Turkic states were keen to boost economic cooperation with China in the fields of energy, transport and investment funds.