https://harici.com.tr/fidan-ziyareti-turkiye-cin-iliskilerinde-yeni-bir-kapi-acacak-mi/
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan paid an official visit to China between 3-5 June 2024 at the invitation of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee. This is a very important and meaningful visit in terms of developing China-Turkey bilateral relations.
From my point of view, this visit has some backgrounds. Local elections for Turkey in March 2024 resulted in a big surprise for the government and the people, and one of the reasons why the opposition won is economic problems. China, on the other hand, has updated its relations with many Arab countries in the last few years. However, for some reason, there is a matter of strategic cooperation relationship that is still not at the top of China and Turkey's diplomatic agendas. In addition, the world is witnessing a systemic crisis. The Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict show no signs of any ceasefire, and are becoming increasingly intensified and turning into a prolonged war, a pocession war and a war of attrition. In this context, as a rising and developing country, China and Turkey share many common interests and should work together to solve the crisis.
Minister Hakan Fidan's visit, Foreign Minister Wang Yi's return visit to Turkey last year, was Turkey's first visit to China as Turkey's new foreign minister. He also became the highest level Turkish official who visited Xinjiang in China in the last 12 years. If the criticisms of the Turkish Foreign Ministry of China's Zinjiang policy are still remembered in February 2019, this visit shows that the two countries have reached a new consensus on this issue, which helps to increase mutual strategic trust between the two countries. In addition, Turkey supports China in main interests. For example, according to the statements made, Turkey supports the only Chinese policy; Turkey will not allow any power in its territory to take actions that would harm China's sovereignty and security; believing that China's development will benefit the world, it does not follow the West's efforts to control this development.
Especially in terms of the economy, although the two countries have different understandings of the main causes of trade deficits and trade deficits, this does not prevent the two countries from increasing economic cooperation. For example, China will increase Turkey's exports of agricultural products and fruits to China, welcome more Turkish manufacturers to participate in the China Import Fair and other fairs to increase the impact of Turkey's brands in China, promote more direct investment in Turkey and promote tourism cooperation. More importantly, the importance of the Central Corridor in the context of the Russia-Ukrainian conflict comes to the fore. 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 space and potential for cooperation.
For example, on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, both China and Turkey have made great efforts to mediate, no matter how difficult the process is. China has always adhered to the position of working for peace and facilitating negotiations objectively and impartially. Turkey shares similar views with China. I saw some reports that Turkey's proposals on this issue were accepted to some extent by Russia. On March 29, 2024, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said that Russia is willing to engage in dialogue on Ukraine, but will not take into account the peace plan proposed by Kiev or the peace summit without Russia's participation, but that he will take into account the "Istanbul Peace Initiative" proposed by Turkey, and that Turkey is preparing for President Putin's visit to Turkey. Regarding the Palestinian-Israel conflict, the two countries advocate immediate ceasefire, increase humanitarian aid, find a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem and support internal reconciliation within Palestine. The voices of justice of China and Turkey regarding this hot issue were heard by the international community.
One of them is that the Turkish Foreign Minister said that Turkey can consider joining the BRICS Group as an alternative. The Russian side clearly welcomed this. As for China, Foreign Minister Wang Yi will attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting on June 10-11, 2024 and will meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss this issue. Another issue is that Hakan Fidan expressed hope that China will be able to participate in the Development Path project proposed by Iraq. Of course, this project has some risks for countries on the route, such as domestic stability, the security risk of the Middle East, foreign interventions of some Great Powers, but China will also evaluate the possibility and potential of this project, especially the coordination of this project with the Belt and Road Initiative.
I see that some statements made by Turkish officials are very strange, which makes the Chinese doubt about Turkey's sincerity.
For example, the Turkish Foreign Minister called Urumqi and Kashgar Islam-Turkish cities. This statement is very strange, because we Chinese never use words such as Islamic, Turkic, Christian, Buddhist to describe Chinese cities, which triggered many negative connotations among the Chinese. As another example, on the occasion of the Turkish Foreign Minister's visit to China, a Yavuz frigate belonging to the Turkish navy crossed the Taiwan Strait and entered the East China Sea, causing the PLA 052D missile destroyer to track and monitor. It is clear that this movement of Turkey's naval frigate violates China's main interests.
Final note
In summary, this visit is of great importance for the development of relations between the two countries, but the establishment of strategic mutual trust between the two parties does not occur overnight. As two ancient Chinese proverbs say, 'A nine-legged platform starts from the foundation of the world, and a thousand-mile journey begins with a single step.' This means that all successful jobs have to start from scratch, small things, and progress gradually, even if its speed is a little slow. Another example is; 'listen to what a person is saying and observe what they are doing'. This is an accurate and rational way not only to listen to what a person says, but also to observe whether their actions match their words. One of the biggest features of China and Turkey relations in the past decade has been 'two steps forward and one step back'. It is hoped that this visit will be for both sides to truly respect each other's fundamental interests and provide an opportunity for bilateral relations to be brought to a higher level with practical actions.