It is a great pleasure for me to
welcome this distinguished audience to our panel titled “Turkey and China in
the New Era”, organized in cooperation with the China Institutes of Contemporary
International Relations.

My heartfelt thanks to President
Yuan for their continuous support. China Institutes of Contemporary
International Relations has always been a valuable partner to our Embassy.

It is also a great privilege to
welcome His Excellency Ambassador Yıldız, Deputy Chairman of the Foreign
Affairs Committee of Turkish Parliament and former Vice Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Turkey, to Beijing.

It is indeed an honour to have the
opportunity to listen to an experienced diplomat like Ambassador Yıldız on how
he sees the current global trends in relation to Turkey-China relations.

I would also like to acknowledge
our other panelists. Professor Kireçci, a member of the Security and Foreign
Policies Council of the Turkish Presidency, and Professor Li Yanan from the
China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

Both Professor Kireçci and
Professor Li will be sharing their valuable perspectives on the Turkish-Chinese
partnerships, and I would like to express my gratitude in advance for their
contributions to today’s event.

Before giving the floor to our
panelists, I would like to offer a general framework on where Turkey-China
relations currently stand.

After assuming my duties as the
Ambassador in December 2017, my colleagues and I have focused on four pillars
of bilateral relations, where we saw and continue to see great potential.

First of all, we wanted to develop our political relations. To
that end, we facilitated a record number of high-level visits between the two
countries in 2018.

The outcome of these visits is a
detailed and concrete cooperation agenda, which has provided us with
medium-term goals, which we still pursue today.

More importantly, this cooperation
agenda has been informed by the close dialogue and friendship between President
Erdoğan and President Xi. Our leaders had the chance to meet seven times in the
last four years, excluding the G20 Summits.

This Tuesday, President Erdoğan
will be visiting Beijing upon the invitation of President Xi, a visit that will
surely consolidate our already strong strategic cooperative relations.

Secondly,
our aim has been to carry economic
relations to a new height. We have a mutual understanding with China to
improve our bilateral trade in a balanced manner. To that end, new Turkish
products are entering the Chinese market and significant Chinese investments
are entering the Turkish market.

Thirdly,
we have seen very positive developments in the field of people-to-people exchanges. In 2018, the number of Chinese tourists
visiting Turkey increased by a yearly 60% and became almost 400,000.

In the near future, we have set
our eyes on the 1 million target, as more and more Chinese people get to know
the unique historic and cultural attractions of Turkey. Moreover, we are
encouraging more Turkish students, tourists and entrepreneurs to come to China
for study, holiday and business.

Last but not least, we are pursuing a bilateral connectivity agenda with far-reaching regional consequences.

Turkey’s Middle Corridor and
China’s Belt and Road have a natural harmony in terms of envisioning transport
corridors connecting China through Central Asia and Turkey with Europe.

A joint working group to give more
concrete shape to what this harmony entails will begin its work before the end
of this year.

I sincerely believe that these
four pillars demonstrate the great convergence between the aspirations of our
peoples and governments and solid opportunities for further improving
Turkey-China relations.

Given our countries’ shared vision
for a peaceful and prosperous global order, I am highly confident that Turkey
and China will enjoy a deepened friendship in the years to come.

Thank you very much for sparing
your time to join us here.