Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong meets with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yildirim Tugrul Turkes in Ankara on April 18.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong met with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yildirim Tugrul Turkes in Ankara on April 18, with both sides pledging to further push forward bilateral strategic cooperation in anti-terrorism and jointly build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Liu said Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met three times from 2015, reaching important consensus on major issues and pointing out the direction for collective endeavor.

Both China and Turkey could bring their respective potential and advantages to deepen anti-terrorism cooperation and promote bilateral strategic cooperative relations, Liu added.

Humanistic exchanges are an important part of friendly cooperation between China and Turkey, said Liu, expressing the hope that the two countries could push forward cooperation in advanced education and communication in humanistic fields including traditional Chinese medicine, tourism and sports, to further consolidate the foundation of public opinion.

For his part, Turkes said Turkey highly values its relations with China and stands ready to further promote bilateral ties in terms of the economy, anti-terrorism, tourism and other fields.

Turkes also said that President Erdogan is looking forward to attending the upcoming Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.