Turkey, China ‘turn a new page’ in ties through ‘strategic partnership’

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who arrived in Ankara late on Thursday for an official visit, became the first Chinese premier to visit Turkey in eight years. Upon his arrival in Ankara, and before his meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday, Wen already expressed hope for “turning a new page” in Chinese-Turkish relations. Speaking at a joint press conference after talks with Erdoğan, Wen said the two countries had made significant progress through comprehensive meetings.

“We decided bilaterally to establish a strategic partnership in our relations and this will be an important milestone,” Wen said. “The two countries have also decided to work together in the fight against terrorism and extremism by establishing bilateral mechanisms,” he added.

For his part, Erdoğan announced that both countries had agreed to use their own currencies, rather than dollars, in bilateral trade. He said energy cooperation on nuclear power would form part of the burgeoning trade with China.

“We have agreed to use the lira and yuan in all of our relations,” Erdoğan said after the two leaders signed eight deals in areas including transportation and trade. In October 2009 Erdoğan announced that Turkey and Iran had prepared a legal framework for transitioning to settlements in national currencies.

Erdoğan described the decision to use the lira and yuan as a “step that will help build our strategic partnership” between Ankara and Beijing. China is widely recognized as one of the dominant global powers of the 21st century, while Turkey is currently the 17th largest economy in the world, with expectations of further growth.

Turkey wants to intensify cooperation within the G-20, which includes both Turkey and China as well as 18 other rich and emerging economies, to tackle financial instability, economic slumps and job losses.

The G-20 is an international body that meets to discuss economic issues. Its members -- 19 countries that are some of the world’s biggest industrial and emerging economies, plus the European Union -- represent about 90 percent of the world’s gross national product (GNP), 80 percent of world trade and two-thirds of the global population.

Ankara and Beijing have both increased their commercial ties with Iran, signing deals on oil and gas fields to the frustration of Western powers, who suspect the Islamic republic of seeking to build a secret nuclear weapons program, an allegation the latter denies.

China reluctantly backed the last round of UN sanctions on Iran while Turkey, along with Brazil, voted against the sanctions. Both China and Turkey have defended their trade with Iran as legitimate.

Currently, bilateral trade between the countries is heavily slanted in China’s favor. In 2009, a year when global trade slumped because of the economic crisis, Turkish exports to China rose 11 percent to $1.6 billion, while imports fell 20 percent to $12.7 billion. Overall, trade volumes between the countries fell 17 percent last year to $14.3 billion.

Turkey says it is seeking to rebalance its trade with China through an increase in Chinese investments in Turkey, tourism from China, joint-ventures in third countries and greater exposure for Turkish goods in China.

Eurasia, Silk Road, deals

Ankara frequently draws attention to the importance of stability in Eurasia and voices a desire for revitalizing historical, economic and political relations in this region, which were maintained in the past thanks to the Silk Road and today via railroads, highways and air travel.

A considerable number of analysts agree that Eurasia, a geographical description defining the landmass of Asia and Europe, is rapidly becoming the world’s new economic center. Ankara’s focus on cooperation with Beijing is thus also related to its ambitions for Eurasian regional stability, which can be built through increasing regional cooperation.

Ahead of the joint press conference, Chinese and Turkish officials signed eight separate bilateral agreements in the fields of trade, culture and transportation. The agreements are as follows:

Agreement for improving and deepening intergovernmental-bilateral commercial and economical cooperation; a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for launching joint efforts for a medium and long-term improvement plan on bilateral commercial and economical cooperation; an MoU for increasing cooperation in third countries in infrastructure construction and technical consultancy services; an MoU for setting a joint working group for a new Silk Road connection; a cultural exchange and cooperation plan for 2010-2013; an MoU for cooperation in fields of information and communication technologies; an MoU for cooperation on transportation infrastructure and maritime; and an agreement on intergovernmental cooperation on railways.

Sore spot: Uighurs

The most recent highest level visit between the two countries was made by Turkish President Abdullah Gül in June 2009. Gül’s trip was the first presidential visit to this country since 1995, when then-President Süleyman Demirel visited China. Officials had been working for months on plans concerning Gül’s visit.

Uighur expatriates protest Chinese premier Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was the target on Friday of a protest by some 100 Uighur expatriates who gathered outside his hotel to protest China’s treatment of the Muslim Turkic-speaking population in its Xinjiang region. The protest was staged by members of the East Turkestan Culture and Solidarity Association who arrived in Ankara from various cities, the Anatolia news agency reported. Thousands of Uighurs live in Turkey. Reading a press statement on behalf of the association, Seyit Tümtürk said they were protesting the “disproportionate use of force, extrajudicial executions and China’s occupation,” as he referred to last year’s violent clashes between local ethnic Turkic Muslim Uighurs and the dominant Han Chinese community. Police prevented the protestors from approaching the hotel and a shoe hurled by a demonstrator towards Wen’s car missed the target. Ankara Today’s Zaman with wires

The Chinese administration proposed that Gül’s stay include, in addition to top-level talks in Beijing, stops in China’s former capital, Xi’an and Urumqi, the ancient capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, populated by the ethnic Turkic Muslim Uighurs.

Yet, the visit’s success was marred by violent clashes between local ethnic-Turkic Muslim Uighurs and the dominant Han Chinese community. The clashes broke out in July in Urumqi, only days after Gül’s visit. The clashes left 197 dead and several hundred wounded, according to official Chinese numbers. At the time, Turkey condemned the incidents with harsh statements from leaders.

“For Turkey, this issue has been closed. We regard Xinjiang and the people living there as a means to solidify friendly relations between Turkey and China,” İhsan Arslan, a leading deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), told Today’s Zaman on Friday.

“The Chinese officials have done their best to repair their image that was harmed by propaganda within the international media after last year’s incidents,” Arslan, who is also the head of the Turkey-China Interparliamentary Friendship Group, said, noting that Turkey was readying to build an industrial zone in Xinjiang as Turkish and that Chinese officials have reached an agreement on this project.

“For us, there is only one China,” Arslan said, echoing Turkey’s respect for China’s territorial integrity. “It is our wish that, like all other people in the whole of China, the people in Xinjiang should also live freely and peacefully,” he added.

According to Selçuk Çolakoğlu, an associate professor of international relations, relations between China and Turkey are doing so well that even experts are surprised.

The tension following the July 2009 incidents has been overcome through intensified contacts and thanks to Chinese officials, who did not publicly respond to Turkey’s harsh wording, according to Çolakoğlu, the head of the Asia-Pacific Studies department at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (USAK).

“Relations have exceeded mere normalization since then and are heading towards a strategic partnership,” Çolakoğlu told Today’s Zaman, speaking before the two prime ministers used the same term to describe their relations.

“China wants to use Turkey in logistical terms to reach Eurasia and build the contemporary Silk Road. The engine of this relationship is the economy,” he said. “Yet, the soft belly of this relationship is the Uighurs. Turkish public opinion should be persuaded that there is no assimilation policy being implemented there. A PR campaign by the Chinese side is required,” he, however, warned.

Erkin Ertem of the Ankara-based Institute of Strategic Thinking (SDE) also believes that the Uighur issue is still a “sensitive” topic in relations. Notwithstanding, Ertem also maintains that Chinese officials finally understood that Turkey really respects the Asian country’s territorial integrity and that its main concern in Xinjiang is the full implementation of human rights.

“In this relationship between Ankara and Beijing, there are a lot of opportunities and potential for the future, but joint interests should be carefully determined and moves should be made towards a joint strategic goal that is clearly defined. If the parties set off only with a political view, then these efforts will not yield fruit and the entire picture will remain merely symbolic gestures,” Ertem told Today’s Zaman.