FM Wang Meets With Erdogan In First Visit By Chinese Official Since 2021

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who resumed his previous role on 25 July following the removal of Qin Gang from the position, is meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in the first visit to Turkey by a senior Chinese minister since 2021. Wang's visit comes as part of a four-nation trip that will also take him to Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. The Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that Fidan and Wang would "...discuss bilateral relations as well as current regional and global developments" during their meeting.

• Al Monitor: "Economic cooperation between the countries, including China’s Road and Belt initiative, are expected to be an important agenda item in the talks [...] as the Turkish government is scrambling to ease its foreign currency crisis. Wang's visit comes as more than 70 Chinese defense, logistics and information technology companies are taking part in the International Defense Industry Fair 2023 (IDEF’23), held in Istanbul this week. Eager to improve economic ties with Beijing, Ankara has significantly toned down its criticism towards China's treatment of its Uyghur minority."
• The meeting has garnered significant interest in the wake of Erdogan's visit to the UAE last week that saw the two nations sign bilateral deals worth over USD50bn. Erdogan is also set to visit the Iraqi capital Baghdad in the future, with an eye on resuming oil flows through a pipeline linking the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.