Turkey’s Fidan arrives on first visit to China, will travel to Uyghur region

ANKARA — Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan arrived in Beijing on Monday on to China for Turkey’s top diplomat, which will also include travel to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Fidan held his first meeting with Chen Wenqing, senior official of the Communist Party of China who oversees intelligence and police, as part of his three-day visit to the country. He then met with the Turkish business community in China, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

In addition to his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, Fidan is also set to meet with Vice President Han Zheng during the visit, Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT reported, citing Turkish diplomatic sources.

First high-level visit to Uyghur region since 2012

Following his meetings in Beijing, Fidan is also slated to travel to Urumqi and Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China, marking the first high-level Turkish visit to the region since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit in 2012.

Once an outspoken critic of Beijing over its treatment of its Muslim minority, Erdogan had accused China of committing “genocide” against the Uyghurs in 2009. He later toned down his criticism over the past years, eyeing to deepen trade ties with the global power.

Much of the international community, including the United States and the European Union, accuses China of oppressing the Uyghurs, incarcerating tens of thousands of its largest Muslim minority in internment camps in an effort to strip them of their Muslim identity. Beijing, in turn, denies the accusations, claiming that the camps are designed to combat separatism and provide “training” to de-radicalize Islamist extremists.

Turkey is home to one of the world’s largest Uyghur diasporas. Turkish authorities in February arrested six people suspected of spying on behalf of Chinese intelligence, marking a rare public showdown against the Asian powerhouse.

Cooperation in nuclear energy and other fields

In Beijing, Fidan and Chinese officials will discuss bilateral cooperation between the two countries, as well as regional and global issues during the visit, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. 

Fidan’s visit comes only a week after Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar‘s visit to China for talks involving a third nuclear power plant that Turkey has been planning to build in the country’s northwest region. Bayraktar said the two countries were close to a deal on the plant, speaking after the visit.

China remains Turkey’s largest trade partner in Asia and its third-largest trade partner in the world, with the trade volume between the two countries standing at more than $47 billion last year. Ankara is seeking to increase its exports to China, as the balance of trade between the two countries is staggeringly in China’s favor, with Turkey’s imports from China exceeding $44 billion last year.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi traveled to Turkey in July in one of his first visits abroad after his appointment to his post the same month.

This is a developing story and will be updated.