On the afternoon of April 16, 2002, Premier Zhu Rongji met with Turkey's Acting President and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly Omer Izgi at Turkey's Presidential Palace.

Zhu said that China and Turkey have achieved great progress in their friendly cooperation in the fields of politics, economy, trade and culture since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1971. China and Turkey signed a joint communique during President Jiang Zemin's visit to Turkey in April 2000, which outlined a blueprint for bilateral relations in the new century. It is of great importance to strengthen the bilateral relations of China and Turkey, two important countries in eastern and western Asia.We believe that bilateral relations have a solid historical foundation and good conditions to develop. The two sides have similar views on many international and regional issues and have conducted good cooperation. We believe that our new type of cooperation and partnership based on equality, mutual benefit and long-term stability would be further strengthened and developed in the new century through our joint efforts.

Izgi first welcomed Zhu to Turkey. He expressed the hope that bilateral relations would be promoted to a new high, especially in economic and trade cooperation. He warmly congratulated China on its accession to the World Trade Organization and hoped that China would play an important role in the world trade body.

On terrorism, Izgi said that Turkey is a country of principle and opposes all forms of terrorism, wherever it happens and in whatever form. It's Turkey's consistent principle. He stressed that Turkey and China have similar views on the fight against terrorism.

Zhu said that the rampant activities of international terrorism in the past several years have aroused serious concern in the international community. The Chinese government appreciates Turkey's stance that Xinjiang is an inalienable part of China and its opposition to some separatists' anti-Chinese activities on the territories of Turkey. On the issue, the Turkish parliament has done a lot of conducive work and we appreciate that.

On the same afternoon, Premier Zhu Rongji met with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Delvet Bahceli. The two sides spoke highly of bilateral relations and explored how to further mutually beneficial cooperation in economic and trade fields.