China, Turkey celebrate 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties

President Xi Jinping underlined on Wednesday the importance for China and Turkey to accelerate the alignment of their development strategies and advance their strategic cooperative relationship as the two countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of bilateral ties.

In a message exchanged with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Xi said bilateral relations have been developing steadily over the past five decades, with exchanges and cooperation between the two sides moving forward in an orderly manner since the establishment of the strategic cooperative relationship in 2010.

The message was Xi's second interaction with Erdogan over the past month. He spoke over the phone with the Turkish president on July 13.

Since last year, the two sides have given each other support in the fight against COVID-19 and conducted fruitful cooperation on vaccines, which has deepened the friendship between the two peoples, Xi said.

The Chinese president said he attaches great importance to ties with Turkey, and is willing to work with Erdogan to take the 50th anniversary as an opportunity to further advance bilateral ties, adding that the two sides should offer each other understanding and support on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns.

For his part, Erdogan said in his message that Turkey-China relations are built on a good foundation for win-win development, with bilateral cooperation in areas such as trade, investment, transport and tourism seeing tremendous growth over the past half-century.

The two nations, he added, have promoted strategic cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, exerting a positive influence on the region and the world.

Faced with the pandemic, the two countries have stood in solidarity, helped each other and ensured the health of their people, he said, adding that Turkey will continue to promote bilateral strategic cooperation.