Associate Professor and Executive Director, Center for Turkish Studies, Shanghai University
At the invitation of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan of Türkiye paid an official visit to China from June 3 to 5, 2024. This is a very important and meaningful visit for the improvement of China-Türkiye bilateral relations.
From my perspective, there are some backgrounds for this visit. For Türkiye, the local election just ended in March 2024 with a big surprise for the government and the public, and one of the reasons for the opposition’s win is due to the economic problem. For China, it has updated the relations with many Arab countries in the past few years. Compared with this, however, for some reasons, China and Türkiye still have a strategic cooperative relationship, which is not high in the diplomatic agendas of both China and Türkiye. Besides, the world is witnessing a systemic crisis. The Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have not seen any signs of cease-fire, but have become increasingly fierce and are turning into a long-term war, positional war and war of attrition. In this context, as an emerging and developing country, China and Türkiye share many common interests with each other and should work together to address the crisis.
- This visit has significant symbolic significance. Minister Hakan Fidan’s visit was a return visit to Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Türkiye last year, his first visit to China as Türkiye’s new foreign minister, and the most senior Turkish official who has visited Xinjiang in China in the past 12 years. If you still remember the criticism of Türkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on China’s Xinjiang policy in February 2019, this visit shows that the two countries have reached a new consensus on this issue, which is conducive to enhancing strategic mutual trust between the two countries. In addition, Türkiye supports China on core interest issues, for example, Türkiye supports the One China policy; It will not allow any force to engage in acts that damage China’s sovereignty and security in the territory of Türkiye; It is not following the West to contain China’s development, believing that China’s development will benefit the world.
- This visit will enhance China and Türkiye relations in multiple areas. Especially in terms of economy, although the two countries have trade deficits and different understandings of the root causes of trade deficits, it does not hinder the two countries from increasing economic cooperation. For example, China will increase the export of Türkiye’s agricultural products and fruits to China, welcome more Türkiye’s producers to participate in the China Import Expo and other exhibitions to improve the influence of Türkiye’s brands in China, encourage more direct investment in Türkiye, and promote tourism cooperation. More importantly, in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the importance of the Middle Corridor is more prominent. In the future, the two sides should further strengthen the strategic alignment between the Middle Corridor and the Belt and Road Initiative, and find more areas and potential for cooperation.
- The two countries have a lot of consensus on numerous international issues. For example, on the issue of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, no matter how difficult the process is, both China and Türkiye made great efforts on mediation. China always adhere to the position of working for peace and facilitating talks in an objective and impartial way. Türkiye shares the similar views as China. I saw some news about Türkiye’s proposals of this issue, which was accepted by Russia to some extent. On March 29, 2024, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said that Russia was willing to engage in dialogue on the Ukrainian issue, but would not consider the peace plan proposed by Kiev or the peace summit without Russia’s participation, but would consider the “Istanbul Peace Initiative” proposed by Türkiye, and Türkiye was also preparing for President Putin’s visit to Turkey. On the issue of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the two countries advocate for an immediate ceasefire, increase humanitarian aid, support a two-state solution to the Palestinian issue, and support internal reconciliation within Palestine. The voices of justice of China and Türkiye on this hot issue was heard by the international community.
- I notice that Türkiye also has some demands on this visit. One thing is that Türkiye’s foreign minister said that Türkiye would consider joining the BRICS Group as an alternative. The Russian side has clearly welcomed this. For China, Foreign Minister Wang Yi will attend the upcoming BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting during June 10-11, 2024 and will meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan again to discuss this issue. Another issue is that Hakan Fidan also expressed his hope that China could join The Development Road project proposed by Iraq. Of course, there are some risks about this project, like the domestic stability for countries along the route, the security risk of the Middle East, the external interventions of some Great Powers and etc., but China will also consider this project’s possibility and potential, especially the coordination of this project with Belt & Road Initiative.
- I notice that some statements made by Türkiye officials are very weird, which makes Chinese people suspicious of its sincerity. For example, the Foreign Minister of Türkiye called Urumqi and Kashgar as Islamic-Turkic cities. This expression is very strange, as we Chinese people never use these words like Islamic, Turkic, Christian, Buddhist to describe Chinese cities, which has triggered many negative associations among Chinese people. For another example, on the occasion of Türkiye’s foreign minister’s visit to China, a Yavuz frigate of Türkiye’s navy crossed the Taiwan Strait into the East China Sea, causing the PLA 052D missile destroyer to track and monitor. Obviously, this act of Türkiye’s naval frigate violated China’s core interests.
In summary, this visit is of great significance for enhancing the relationship between the two countries, but the establishment of strategic mutual trust between the two sides is not achieved overnight. As two ancient Chinese sayings have it, one goes, “A nine foot platform starts from the foundation of the earth, and a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. This means that all successful things should start from scratch, starting from small things, and gradually progressing, even if the pace is a bit slow. One sentence is “listen to what a person says and observe what they do”. It is a right and rational way for not only listening to what a person says, but also observing whether their actions match their words. One of the biggest characteristics of China and Türkiye relations in the past decade was “two steps forward and one step back”. It is hoped that this visit can serve as an opportunity for both sides to truly respect each other’s core interests and promote the development of the bilateral relations to a higher level through practical actions.
