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00:00:04of
00:00:09Hello, you're watching TRT World, I'm the Questa Burac,
00:00:11a reminder of our main headlines today: Iran says it's reached an
00:00:15agreement with Oman a route for ships transiting the straight of
00:00:19Homos, but Terran has also warned that the agreement does not
00:00:23guarantee safe passage through the straight due to the U.S. naval
00:00:27blockade. Officials in Washington had hoped in agreement to open the straight
00:00:31would happen this week. President Trump says talks
00:00:33a with Iran are still ongoing despite Terran, denying holding
00:00:37direct negotiations with the US.
00:00:41I can say that the latest situation is that almost all
00:00:44of the topics are under discussion. The map, the transit
00:00:48roots, the entering and exiting of maritime traffic and
00:00:51those by literal site agreements with Oman, because it's not just
00:00:55map. These fundamental
00:00:57of agreements with Oman have been mostly completed.
00:01:02of of
00:01:08let's talk and then they don't they say we never said that you know
00:01:12what, the fake news knows they did say that, but we are talking,
00:01:15let's see what happens. Israel's continued shaling in
00:01:19southern Lebanon has ignited forest fires, the attacks come
00:01:23after two Israeli soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion in Majdal
00:01:27Salim, the strikes also hit targets in inside designated pilot
00:01:31zone, all this happening whilst delegates from both countries are in
00:01:35of Rome discussing the next
00:01:37in phase of a gradual Israeli withdrawal
00:01:39of from southern
00:01:40of Lebanon under a US broken mechanism.
00:01:44The Ukrainian president Valadimir Zelensky has once again
00:01:47asked European allies for more support following Russian
00:01:51strikes. Mr. Zelensky said Moscow wants to further escalate
00:01:55the conflict using ballistic missiles. At least 20 people have been
00:01:59killed and dozens injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine's eastern
00:02:03city of Balaclia, the capital Kive and
00:02:07of surrounding in areas since Wednesday.
00:02:11Myanmar's leader is in Thailand on an official visit as Bangkok pushes
00:02:15for re-engagement with its wartorn
00:02:17of neighbor and the regional block ASEAN. Myanman's leaders have been
00:02:21barred from ASEAN summit since 2021 when Ming
00:02:25Angyang staged a coup against the elected government of angsang
00:02:28suchi, it led to a civil. war that killed an estimated 100
00:02:32thousand. well, the news continues right here on
00:02:36TRT World, after straight
00:02:40of talk.
00:02:5555 years after establishing diplomatic ties, Turkey and
00:02:58China are deepening their... Relationship, as global power shifts
00:03:02east, the two countries are expanding trade and strategic
00:03:06cooperation. Can Ankara and Beijing turn growing common
00:03:10interest
00:03:10of into a
00:03:11of lasting partnership? I'll break it all down here on straight
00:03:14talk.
00:03:26of
00:03:33Hello and welcome to Straight Talk, I'm Yusuf Arem.
00:03:36of Turkey in and
00:03:36of China established diplomatic relations 55 years ago.
00:03:40Today, as the global order shifts and new power centers emerge, that
00:03:44relationship is becoming more strategically important than ever.
00:03:48Through the cold war and the decades that followed, ties between Ankara
00:03:52and Beijing remained relatively
00:03:55of modest, but over the past decade, the
00:03:56in relationship has taken on new strategic importance.
00:04:01tells us more. 55 years ago,
00:04:05of Turkia and China took the first step
00:04:06in a relationship few expected would one day carry strategic
00:04:10weight. The cold war had put Ankara and Beijing
00:04:14on opposing sides. Even after it ended,
00:04:18relations remained modest, driven more by commerce than
00:04:22strategy. That dynamic changed dramatically in the
00:04:26last decade, the COVID pandemic rewrote global supply chain.
00:04:30As European demands shifted toward Turkish manufacturers, Turkia
00:04:34turned to China for the
00:04:36of industrial
00:04:36of equipment needed to keep its factories running. The
00:04:40numbers tell that story. Turkia's foreign
00:04:43ministry says bilateral trade has more than doubled in 5
00:04:47years, rising from $26 billion in
00:04:502020 to nearly $53 billion in
00:04:532025, but the relationship remains heavily
00:04:56imbalanced. China exports nearly $50 billion.
00:05:08It spends about 15
00:05:09leaving a $46 billion deficit.
00:05:13Reducing that gap has become one of Turkia's top
00:05:15priorities. During talks with Chinese President
00:05:19Shing Ping at last year's Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit
00:05:23in China, President Erdon stressed that bilateral trade
00:05:27should be supported by greater investment to make the relationship
00:05:31more balanced and sustainable,
00:05:34and those investments are starting to trickle in. Battery giant
00:05:37CATL has partnered with Turkia's Tog to develop next
00:05:41generation. electric vehicle technology, supporting Ankara's ambition
00:05:45to become regional hub for electric mobility, but
00:05:49the road hasn't been without bumps. China's EV leader
00:05:53BYD has suspended its $1 million dollar investment in
00:05:57Turkia, prompting Ankara to warn that the agreement remains
00:06:01binding and that the company will be held to its obligations,
00:06:05including repaying incentives if the investment is not
00:06:09completed. But both sides. the
00:06:12relationship as much bigger than any single investment
00:06:16to unlock the next phase of ties, Ankara and Beijing are
00:06:20revisiting the ancient silk road. middle
00:06:24corridor is becoming key link in
00:06:27china's trillion dollar belt and road initiative, creating a modern
00:06:31land bridge between Chinese factories and European
00:06:34consumers.
00:06:40Particularly in the middle corridor.
00:06:51Economic interests may have brought them
00:06:53together, but it's the world's growing
00:06:57crises that are increasingly putting Ankara and Beijing on the
00:07:00same page, from Gaza to Iran, both have called
00:07:04for diplomacy over escalation and backed efforts to prevent a
00:07:08wider regional conflict.
00:07:12growing diplomatic alignment has also renewed questions about
00:07:16Turkia's broader strategic direction. Ankara has deepened
00:07:19engagement with groups like Bricks and the SCO, but
00:07:23Turkia insists the engagement complements rather than replaces
00:07:27its NATO membership and longstanding ambitions to join the
00:07:31EU. 55 years after establishing diplomatic
00:07:34ties, Turkia and China are no longer just expanding
00:07:38trade, they're reshaping how goods, investment and
00:07:42political influence move across
00:07:44eurasia. Straight
00:07:48talk. Formore, joining me now from
00:07:51Beijing is the Turkish ambassador to China sajukuk
00:07:55Unal. Your excellency, thanks for joining me.
00:07:58Obviously the Turkia China relationship, very important
00:08:02relationship bilaterally, growing
00:08:0655 years of diplomatic ties being celebrated right
00:08:09now. I want you to begin by giving us an overview
00:08:13of where the relationship between Beijing and Ankara is
00:08:17currently at. Thank you, thank you very much for having me. Indeed,
00:08:20today is the 55th anniversary the establishment the diplomatic
00:08:24relations between Republic of Turkia and Republic of Republic of
00:08:28China, but of course the relationship goes back to
00:08:32centuries, two nations, Turkish and
00:08:35Chinese nations being ancient
00:08:38civilizations, old empires and they have been.
00:08:42connected many times, but the main connection was through the silk
00:08:46road, they have exchange
00:08:49you know so many things, technology, trade,
00:08:52envoys, the Ottoman sent sometimes new
00:08:56rifles, chinese sent you silk and porcelin,
00:09:00so this relationship has been there for centuries, and in the
00:09:03early republican period of course, the then
00:09:07Chinese administration was in connection with Turkey as well,
00:09:11so the tur first turkish diplomat who was sent
00:09:15here was who came here in
00:09:191929 and then ali sip was
00:09:22first legation chair who was let's say
00:09:26ambassador in 1929 and then
00:09:29later on in 1934 again was sent but this time as
00:09:33full ambassador and the
00:09:37embassy was in first nanjing and
00:09:40then in dan chching uh and the Turkish
00:09:43diplomacy, as you would remember we were actively neutral at the
00:09:47time, they were always here during the difficult
00:09:50times of Chinese people and sort of shows solidarity with the
00:09:54Chinese people. Of course, then
00:09:57in after the second world war,
00:10:01so many things happened, and in
00:10:041971, exactly 53, 55 years ago today,
00:10:084th
00:10:08of August, the ambassadors of Turkey and China...
00:10:13They have formally established diplomatic relations in
00:10:16Paris and by the exchange of notes they have
00:10:19established this relationship and since then of course so many
00:10:23things have changed. the relations have
00:10:26flourished and in that sense the
00:10:30Turkish Chinese relationship is, I think
00:10:33going on the rise, to
00:10:37give an example, our trade has
00:10:40reached almost 50 billion i trade volume, 50 billion US
00:10:44dollars worth, China this year has become
00:10:47our first trade partner, and of
00:10:50course
00:10:51there are other issues regarding connectivity, tourism.
00:10:55uh investments. what's exactly the bilateral
00:10:59trade volume target right now set between the two
00:11:02presidents? well
00:11:05of course the the real target is
00:11:08is maybe can go towards
00:11:11even more than 50 billion, but 50 billion
00:11:15US dollars is is very good target that we have
00:11:18surpassed,
00:11:21the reason why I asked you that is because obviously China economic...
00:11:25jug or not uh one the biggest economies in the world, turke a
00:11:28G20 uh country, very vibrant economy, growing as
00:11:32well, and when we look at this bilateral trade between uh the two
00:11:36countries, there's quite a bit of a trade surplus in China's
00:11:39favor, 40 billion dollars, I mean that's to be expected with most
00:11:43countries obviously, if you're not exporting energy to China,
00:11:47chances are you have a trade surplus, but what steps could be
00:11:50taken even out that uh trade surplus
00:11:54where uh "the trade on both sides is a little more
00:11:56even, yeah, indeed, you're right, actually most the
00:12:00countries uh they're also a similar situation because
00:12:04the strength the Chinese economy, what can be done is is
00:12:08as follows: first of all, of course, we can as turkia we
00:12:12can export more qualified goods to
00:12:15China, there could be more exports,
00:12:18secondly, there will be, there could be more
00:12:22Chinese investments even though" "we have a good
00:12:26relationship in investments, this can be enhanced.
00:12:30At the moment there are almost 200 Turkish companies investing in
00:12:33China, and approximately the same number of Chinese companies are investing
00:12:37currently
00:12:38in in Turkia. And thirdly, we can always increase the
00:12:42present potential the tourism. Last year, with last
00:12:45year's figures, almost half million Chinese friends have visited
00:12:49Turkia, and we believe, I believe we can just
00:12:52further enhance this figure, and that's why..." Actually we
00:12:55have uh started at the beginning of this year a visa free
00:12:59policy to Chinese tourists. Yeah, I, I, I am seeing more Chinese
00:13:03tourists walking around Istanbul or when I'm in Bodroom or
00:13:06Capadokia, we that Chinese tourist segment is
00:13:10definitely growing very, very quickly. I also want to talk to
00:13:13you about cooperation on uh products like electronic
00:13:17vehic uh electric vehicles, uh, lithium
00:13:21batteries, uh, cooperation and other.
00:13:25of industry and what not, because I see little reports that there
00:13:29could be potential investments, joint ventures, this and that,
00:13:33what projects are you hearing in, what are the specific areas
00:13:36of cooperation that you think both countries need to
00:13:40concentrate on, actually there is untapped
00:13:44huge potential on every level of economy and commercial
00:13:48life, if I may say so, evs is is one
00:13:51them, AI minerals,
00:13:55also different kinds of energies, solar energy, wind
00:13:59energy, there there are so many projects that we are
00:14:02currently working on, talking about to further
00:14:06enhance the Chinese investments in Turkey,
00:14:09likewise Turkish investments and trade in
00:14:13China, and I believe these talks, these
00:14:17projects would further enhance the present
00:14:20relationship a better balanced
00:14:24and further point,
00:14:28with the war in Iran and the closure the straight of Hormus,
00:14:31logistics and trade roots have become very, very big, now China obviously
00:14:35has its belt and road project, Turkia right now working on the
00:14:39development road with Iraq, they might have deal with Saudi
00:14:43Arabia, Jordan and Syria on Hijas railway, but their premiere
00:14:46project, obviously in Central Asia, the middle corridor, very
00:14:50important, running from basically China through Central
00:14:54Asia through to... all the way into eastern European
00:14:56markets,
00:14:58can can we or will the middle corridor be integrated in with
00:15:02belton road and what are the challenges that can be
00:15:05lifted to have more trade pumping through in the
00:15:08future? i think we can, actually
00:15:11turkey has seen this
00:15:14potential at the very
00:15:16beginning, i mentioned about the silcroat
00:15:20and we have
00:15:22signed you. I mean an mou in the
00:15:26year 2000, that's the first time that the batton road
00:15:30initiative and the silk road actually has taken
00:15:33place in the Turkish Chinese texts and then after.
00:15:37words when the Chinese site has announced route to,
00:15:41turkey was one the first countries who supported that in
00:15:452015 we signed of understanding with China
00:15:47to further enhance our
00:15:50cooperation on this field, I mean on
00:15:53connectivity
00:15:56to also put together middle
00:16:00corridor and BRI and we had held the
00:16:03first joint cooperation meeting in 2024 now.
00:16:07we are thinking and talking about the second meeting, how we can further
00:16:11promote this link? needless to say, the
00:16:15last year we have also seen the belton road
00:16:19initiative railways starting from chonching and
00:16:23chengdu going to Istanbul and our deputy minister of
00:16:27transport was here in Changdu and Chongching in last
00:16:30July to be present at these start
00:16:34kickoff the railway connection. and today this
00:16:38railway connection is you know enabling
00:16:42Turkish and Chinese goods from the heart of China
00:16:46to Istanbul in 15 days, likewise the air
00:16:50connectivity has as gained momentum again this
00:16:54year we have reached 56, five six
00:16:57so flights weekly between Turkey and China and the planes are
00:17:01full so the air connectivity, the land
00:17:04connectivity through railways is there. "and
00:17:08I believe we will have more and ample opportunities to further
00:17:12invest in this field as well. Last month, big
00:17:16NATO summit in Ankara, next month, big SCO
00:17:20summit in Bishkek, also a brick summit on the calendar coming
00:17:24up as well. Now, in recent years, Erdogan has attended
00:17:27a brick summit and an SCO summit, grabbing a lot of
00:17:30international attention being there. Do you think Turkia's
00:17:34closer ties with these two alliances?" whether it be
00:17:38membership in the future or preferred partnership or just a
00:17:42periphery relationship, will that be important in
00:17:45strengthening the relationship between Ankara and
00:17:48Beijing? well,
00:17:51you know, world is passing through a
00:17:53transformation in all fields
00:17:56and SEO, bricks, they are also
00:17:59emerging international organizations in this
00:18:02framework, and we have been as you also
00:18:06said contact in coordination, cooperation
00:18:10with these two organizations for a long
00:18:12time, in in SEO, we
00:18:16have been a dialogue partner almost
00:18:20decade ago and we have been attending all
00:18:23the suo plus member meetings,
00:18:27likewise in bricks whenever there is invitation uh we are
00:18:31always attending these conferences at the higher
00:18:35level and the last ' summit of
00:18:38SEO was held in Tienjin, China, as
00:18:41you know, his excellency president, upon the
00:18:45invitation of President Shing has attended to
00:18:49that summit with six ministers, so that's the importance that
00:18:53we are attaching to SEO and so summits
00:18:56and I believe we will continue to further
00:18:59develop our relations with these two
00:19:02organizations. I want to talk a little about Trump as well, I know
00:19:06you're the ambassador to... but trump impacts everything and
00:19:10obviously on many countries, china being one
00:19:14the big targets, now Turkey and China to
00:19:17countries that heavily depend and defend open
00:19:21trade, when you look at right now,
00:19:25this shift away from global trade of more protectionist
00:19:28type of policies coming from one the
00:19:32world's biggest economies, the world's biggest economy at the moment, the United
00:19:36States. how can uh China
00:19:39and Turkia work together to protect global supply lines, how can
00:19:43they work together on deepening bilateral economic
00:19:47cooperation, because global supply lines being threatened by
00:19:51closures, by tariffs, by customs, by
00:19:55sanctions, it's just the mind field
00:19:57economically, and obviously that cooperation between Beijing and
00:20:01Anchor could be very important, and what could they
00:20:04do, well - As you said,
00:20:08Turkey is very f of open trade, China, also
00:20:12US, I mean, all all the countries in the world actually they are
00:20:16for free trade, more open trade, and from
00:20:19that perspective, I think Turkia is
00:20:23going to further develop its commercial ties with
00:20:27everybody, with every country, that's possible, as you
00:20:31said now there is a big issues
00:20:34regarding international trade, not only in the... hemisphere, but also
00:20:38on the eastern hemisphere, and in that
00:20:42context, we as Turkey we would like to further
00:20:46enhance our cooperation not only with.
00:20:50all countries, but of course with China as well, what can be done or
00:20:54how can be done? this is first of course to further increase the
00:20:57bilateral trade, secondly to
00:21:01talk and work for more multilateralism, think
00:21:05every country is is trying to focus on more
00:21:08multilalism from their own perspective,
00:21:12and obviously we're shifting towards a multipolar world,
00:21:16and inside of that multipolar world, these many, many... conflicts
00:21:20whether what's happening in Gaza or Iran or
00:21:23Ukraine, America's position, sometimes
00:21:27a European position that is a little more closer
00:21:31to avoiding diplomacy and more a
00:21:34military solution, very opposite of what
00:21:38Turkia wants, Tutkia being very pro-diplomacy, trying to have
00:21:42mediation role, whether it's bringing the Russians and the
00:21:45Ukrainians together, weather is trying to find a solution
00:21:49regarding... iran or Gaza, China also very
00:21:53pro-mediation, when we look as its foreign policy,
00:21:57very soft power economic policy, and we
00:22:01we see lot of alignment here, actually, at least in their styles of
00:22:05engagement. Is this becoming a more broader
00:22:08strategic alignment that might be bringing these two countries closer
00:22:11together? Could we see more geopolitical or diplomatic
00:22:15cooperation, beyond just the bilateral relationship, but on
00:22:19more broader. global issues, yes,
00:22:23as you said, the world is passing through very difficult times
00:22:26and we as turkey we have
00:22:30been doing our best at our
00:22:34presidential level, at the foreign minister level to find a
00:22:37solution, a durable solution, a lasting solution to either
00:22:41international crisis or all regional crisis crisis,
00:22:45china is also trying to do the same because we both
00:22:49turkey and china are fond of
00:22:51multilateralism, we are both
00:22:54of
00:22:56prioritizing dialogue
00:22:59and and diplomacy, in that
00:23:03sense, I believe both turkish and Chinese
00:23:07diplomacy, they are working towards the same
00:23:09aims, looking to the international
00:23:13and regional conflicts from the same prisms and similar
00:23:17angles, China is also, trying
00:23:20to you find solutions, we
00:23:24as as I said, as you said, we are trying to find a
00:23:27solution to all the issues, in in many the issues we have
00:23:31been talking with China to exchange views, how to
00:23:35go further, our foreign minister spoke regarding
00:23:39Iran crisis some time ago, and I
00:23:42believe in this new time, new period, we will
00:23:46continue to talk, continue to consult with each other,
00:23:50indepening the head. Mr. Ambassador, I want to ask you,
00:23:54how is the perception of turks in
00:23:57China?
00:23:58I mean, how do the Chinese view the Turkish people, uh,
00:24:02Turkish history, uh, and how is Turkish public
00:24:05diplomacy and trying to reach the Chinese people and
00:24:09uh, explain its culture to them, explain uh the touristic sites here, how
00:24:13do you view uh that type of communication between the
00:24:16government to people and people to government?
00:24:21Well, I think among the relationships,
00:24:25people to people relationship is
00:24:27the is the most important one. Uh, to
00:24:31answer your question, I think I can devel on first
00:24:34tourism, as I said just a while
00:24:36ago, last year's figures shows us
00:24:40that approximately close to half million Chinese
00:24:44friends have visited Turkey, Turkia,
00:24:47and these... tourist, they all
00:24:51return back to China with very vivid and very nice
00:24:54memories, Chinese people, Chinese tourits, Chinese
00:24:58friends, they are generally found of going to more
00:25:02cultural sites, more geographically interesting parts of our
00:25:05country, so that makes them more, I think
00:25:09interested in Turkish history as well, the second one is
00:25:13gastronomy, with pleasure I have to say that there
00:25:17are lot of Turkish restaurants in... china
00:25:20and our turkish population, I mean is not that much in
00:25:24China, but most these restaurants are almost
00:25:28always full, so that's I
00:25:32think that that shows the Chinese people's
00:25:36interest Turkish gastronomy, not only because
00:25:40we have some common food or we know each
00:25:43other's cuisine, but this is I think a
00:25:46very important pull factor for the... Chinese
00:25:50friends to visit Turkia, then of course the
00:25:54cultural relationships, there are at the
00:25:57moment 11, Turkish literature or
00:26:01Turkish Education. turkish training, turkish
00:26:05history departments in different Chinese universities,
00:26:09there is a unisemry institute here, there are four
00:26:12confitious institutes in turkey in different turkish universities, so
00:26:16these also increase the level of
00:26:19people to people relationship, so in that sense
00:26:23I can confidently say that the perception of
00:26:27turkia, turks is is
00:26:30positive in in China. "and I believe it's the same back
00:26:34home in in Turkey, I mean, Chinese people is very
00:26:38well known by their kindness, by their
00:26:41hardwing style and by their
00:26:45travelling wishes, and they definitely are. I
00:26:49also want to ask you, I feel like everything has been a little too
00:26:53positive on the China took relationship, so I want to ask you, what's
00:26:56the biggest challenge that you see? The biggest
00:27:00challenge, if you ask me and honest..." is still maybe
00:27:04because the geographical proximity, still the two
00:27:08peoples don't know each other that well, and
00:27:12that's that's really a challenge, it's not because Turkey is a big country,
00:27:16China of course geographically a bigger country, but we are
00:27:20both far away, but through this
00:27:23connectivity issues that are going, I think
00:27:27to the positive direction, I believe our peoples
00:27:30can know each other ' much
00:27:33better, and I believe hopefully this
00:27:37year, especially after the
00:27:39you know visa free policy of Turkia, we can host more
00:27:42Chinese friends in Turkia, these kind of
00:27:46steps will surely
00:27:49increase each people's knowing
00:27:53the other, likewise we would like to increase
00:27:56exchange of students and cooperation between
00:27:59universities, I think these three things. uh
00:28:03followed following each other could really address this challenge
00:28:07a positive direction uh because the
00:28:10geographical distance if I may say so, we still need to
00:28:13learn about more each other's culture. Turkey's ambassador to China,
00:28:17Mr. Sachu kinal, thank you for doing
00:28:19this.
00:28:24And that's all for this edition of Straight talk with me, Yusuf arm. If you
00:28:28got any comments, please share them with us on X at Straighttalt.
00:28:32Also don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can find more
00:28:36exclusive content. Until next time, take care and
00:28:39goodbye.
00:28:55Courage or cowardis. Switzerland is thinking
00:28:59again about being neutral.
00:29:03"and the country's arms industry wants changes to the law so it can
00:29:07export weapons more
00:29:08easily.
00:29:16price of swiss
00:29:18what the neutrality? is is it helping others by being a peacemaker or
00:29:22simply helping
00:29:23itself?
00:29:27neutrality
00:29:28the swiss say doesn't mean they're not ready to defend
00:29:31themselves." 'I can hit the cars
00:29:34and all this a country where civilian gun
00:29:38ownership is one the highest in the world und dann
00:29:42hier dann wird kann man die ganze
00:29:45Serieß the cost of sitting on the
00:29:49sideline beyond borders on TRT
00:29:53World'.
00:30:10Donald Trump says he prefers diplomacy over war as Iran and
00:30:14Oman appear closer to deal that could reopen the straight of
00:30:18Homus. Hello and welcome to TRT World
00:30:21Live from Istanbul, I'm Lequesa Burac, also coming up on the program
00:30:25today. Israeli attacks kill one in southern
00:30:29Lebanon, even as peace talks between the two countries, enter day
00:30:33three in Rome. Ukraine
00:30:37speaks to NATO an attempt to secure missile
00:30:40interceptors as Russian attacks take their deadly
00:30:43toll. And healing through music. Young
00:30:47Syrians are rebuilding cultural spaces trying to undo years
00:30:51of trauma from conflict.