Chinese Vice President to hold contacts in Turkey

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is set to arrive in Turkey today for a two-day visit as the special guest of President Abdullah Gul. Jinping, who has been to the US and Ireland prior to his visit to Turkey, will be welcomed as part of a ceremonial protocol which is applied for heads of states. Jinping will be firstly received by Gul, and then by Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. He will proceed to Istanbul on Wednesday to attend the Turkey-China Business Forum and then hold contacts at the Aegean Free Zone in Izmir. Speaking to the Sabah daily, Jinping reiterated that China and Turkey have maintained consultations and coordination with multilateral institutions such as the UN, G-20, the Asia Cooperation Dialogue and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, and thus protected and developed peace, stability and improvement both in Eurasia and throughout the world. Stating that a comprehensive enrichment of strategic relations between Turkey and China suits the two countries' interests, Jinping said that China was willing to boost the bilateral and concrete cooperation level between the two countries. Jinping added that the 12th Five-Year Development Plan of China, as well as Turkey's objective to take its place among the ten greatest economies in the world offered amazing opportunities aimed at developing cooperation between the two countries. Jinping also expressed China's hopes to increase its trade volume and expand areas of cooperation with Turkey.