[Photo/Xinhua]

Premier Li Keqiang met visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on July 29.

The Premier said both China and Turkey are important emerging market economies, and expressed hope that Erdogan’s meeting with President Xi Jinping would lead to fruitful agreements.

Premier Li noted China is willing to develop healthy and steady relations with Turkey by promoting political trust, considering each other’s key interests and deepening pragmatic cooperation.

He noted China attaches great importance to develop pragmatic cooperation with Turkey and urged both sides to better use the inter-governmental cooperation committee, led by senior officials of vice-premier level, to expand political, economic and cultural exchanges.

He said China is willing to align its Belt and Road Initiative with Turkey’s development plan to strengthen cooperation in infrastructure construction, new energy, light industries and telecommunication industries to reach balanced growth in two-way trade. China is also willing to expand cooperation in space, aviation and finance sectors, he added, and said he hopes Turkey will provide necessary support needed for Chinese companies investing in Turkey.

Erdogan said Turkey’s plan to promote ties with China is strong and clear. He said Turkey is willing to take bilateral trade and investment to a higher level and welcomes Chinese companies to invest in infrastructure construction, energy, telecommunication, finance, aviation and project contracting sectors.

In addition, he said, Turkey is also willing to become a manufacturing and logistics base for Chinese companies and jointly explore third country markets.