Erdogan has repeatedly signaled to Beijing in the past that he is interested in the welfare of the Uyghurs – the Chinese announcement made no mention of it.
With his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan the Chinese president met today Friday Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the regional summit being held in Uzbekistan.
President Xi asked his Turkish counterpart to “strengthen mutual political trust” between Beijing and Ankara, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
The talks were held on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which is attended by foreign leaders, including the Russian president Vladimir Putin, and which is held in Samarkand.
“The two parties must strengthen mutual political trust, yes they sincerely respect the fundamental interests each other and strengthen the political foundations of China-Turkey strategic cooperative relations,” Xi Jinping was quoted as saying by CCTV.
“We must focus on development cooperation and take full advantage of the roles and advantages of the various cooperation mechanisms between our two countries,” he stressed.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly signaled to Beijing in the past his interest in the welfare of the Uyghurs, a Muslim and Turkish-speaking Chinese minority most of whom live in Xinjiang (northwest China). In the Chinese announcement no mention is made in Xinjiang nor to the Uyghurs.
Human rights groups have accused Chinese authorities of cracking down on the population, after a wave of deadly attacks sparked a crackdown in the name of counter-terrorism.
Turkey is only a “dialogue partner” of the SCO, which includes China, Russia, India, Pakistan and four former Soviet republics of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan).
The SCO was created in 2001 as a tool for political and economic cooperation, as well as cooperation in the field of security, competing with Western organizations.
Turkey, like China, had been accused at the end of August by the French president Emmanuel Macron that they have “an agenda of neo-colonial and imperialist influence” in Africa. Ankara had denounced these comments as “unacceptable” and “incorrect”.
Xi Jinping met in Samarkand with foreign leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. This is the Chinese leader’s first trip abroad since January 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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