Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s three-day visit to China signaled improved diplomatic relations, upgraded bilateral trade and investment ties, and a significant step toward Turkey’s accession to the anti-Western BRICS bloc.
Fidan met with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other senior Chinese government officials in Beijing from June 3-5.
He later stopped in the Xinjiang cities of Urumqi and Kashgar, where he proposed a solution to the ongoing Uyghur crisis. After a series of attacks, China has since 2017 held over one million Uyghurs in detention facilities Beijing refers to as “reeducation camps.”
Turkey is home to a large Uyghur population, many of whom have fled persecution in Xinjiang. The US and EU, meanwhile, have used the camps as a whipping boy issue to condemn China’s rights record and impose sanctions on businesses that use forced Uyghur labor.
Fidan, the highest-ranking Turkish official to visit Xinjiang since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2012, told his Chinese hosts that “Changing the perception in the world and the Islamic world regarding the cultural rights and lives of the Uyghurs here is beneficial for China, for us and for everyone.”
In Urumqi and Kashgar, which he called “Turkic-Islamic cities”, Fidan and his entourage visited mosques and the Grand Bazaar, and chatted with children in the street.
As reported by Turkey’s state-controlled Anadolu news agency, Fidan said that Ankara regards the Turkic Uyghur people as an important bridge between China and the Islamic world and expressed a desire for them to live in prosperity and peace in China.
“Therefore,” he added, “what we always say is this: we support China’s one-China policy, its territorial integrity and its sovereignty.” His counterpart Wang said China recognizes the importance of mutual respect and opposes foreign interference in others’ internal affairs.
Sibel Karabel, director of the Southeast Asian Countries Strategic Studies and Research Center at Gedik University in Istanbul, told the US-based Al-Monitor news site “This issue was almost a taboo between the two sides. I believe that it was handled with great maturity from both sides.”
Concerning economic relations, Fidan said “China is Turkey’s second-largest trading partner. Currently, there is a trade volume approaching $50 billion between the two countries,” but “this is somewhat in favor of China.”
Somewhat, indeed. In 2023, Turkey imported $44.9 billion worth of goods from China but exported only $3.3 billion. Ankara would like China to narrow this deficit by buying more Turkish agricultural, food and other products. It would also like more Chinese tourists to visit Turkey.
According to the Communist Party-run Global Times, Wang replied that China is willing to expand imports of agricultural products and strengthen cooperation in culture, education, tourism and other fields, including aviation. Passenger jets built by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) may soon be delivering Chinese tourists to Ankara and Istanbul.
Fidan also said there is room for more Chinese investment in Turkey and that the Middle Corridor project, which envisions a revival of the ancient Silk Road trade route, has potential synergy with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Turkey joined the Belt and Road in 2015 but has previously viewed it not only as an opportunity but as a competitor.
The Middle Corridor – also known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route – runs from Europe to China via Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and then either Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. It parallels and handles more goods than the northern route through Russia.
A branch called the Lapis Lazuli or Turkey-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan-Afghanistan Transit Corridor, which is still under development, is intended to give Afghanistan a route to the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea. It will also connect Central Asia to the Middle East, Pakistan and India.
Fidan’s visit followed up on Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar’s visit to Beijing in May, where he met with China’s Minister of National Resources, government officials and corporate executives to discuss cooperation in nuclear and renewable energy, mining and minerals including rare earth metals. During the visit, the two countries signed an energy-related MoU.
The construction of Turkey’s third nuclear power plant was at the top of the agenda in talks with China National Nuclear Corporation Overseas. Bayraktar also reportedly discussed small modular reactors and hydrogen energy with the State Power Investment Corporation and energy storage facilities with battery maker CATL.
Emphasizing Turkey’s independent stance, Fidan told his hosts “While we have a customs union with the EU, we also explore new opportunities for cooperation with several partners in different platforms such as BRICS.” Fidan plans to attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting in Nizhny Novgorod on June 10-11.
At their September 2023 summit meeting in Johannesburg, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) invited Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Argentina to become full members of the bloc. Argentina’s new right-wing President Javier Milei rejected the offer but the other four joined in January this year.
Other countries that have applied for membership in the BRICS include Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Palestine, Senegal, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam. Turkey, which has a larger economy and greater international influence than any of them, would be a significant addition to the bloc.
On a purchasing power parity basis, Turkey ranks 11th in the world with a GDP between that of France and Mexico, according to the International Monetary Fund. In US dollar terms, it ranks 18th between the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.
In April, Turkey became the tenth nation to join the International Lunar Research Station program led by the China National Space Administration and Roscosmos.
At the time, Lev Zeleny, scientific director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said “We are thinking of organizing a big cooperation on lunar exploration within the BRICS. So far these are only plans. Perhaps we will discuss them in the near future at a meeting of BRICS countries.”
Regarding the war in Gaza, Fidan said “At this point, we appreciate China’s international stance. It is extremely important for China to support a two-state solution, to support a ceasefire, and to support humanitarian aid. In this regard, I believe China is truly playing a good role, it is playing a constructive role.”
According to the Anadolu news agency, “Fidan also expressed satisfaction with the common understanding between Turkey and China on establishing a fair and lasting peace in Ukraine.”
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