On April 18, 2002, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, who was accompanying Premier Zhu Rongji on a visit to Turkey, met with his Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem, who just returned to Turkey from a visit abroad, in Istanbul.

Tang said that Premier Zhu and Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit had reached broad common understanding on a series of major issues during their successful talks in Ankara. Tang said that the Sino-Turkish relations of friendly cooperation and partnership would be further developed in a multi-level, multi-formula and all-dimentional way.

Cem congratulated Zhu on the success of his visit. He said that it is of strategic importance to develop the bilateral relations between Turkey and China. He expressed the hope that Turky-China relations would be pushed to a new high in the future, noting that the two countries have wide space and great potential in their cooperation.

The two ministers also exchanged views on the exchanges and cooperation between the two foreign ministries and international and regional issues of common interest.

On the Middle East issue, Tang elaborated the Chinese government's
basic stance. Noting the failure to materialize expected objectives by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in his just-ended Mideast tour, Tang stressed that the more difficult circumstances are, the more efforts the international community should exert to seek an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflicts, and bring back on track the Middle East peace process. China will continue to work together with the international community, including Turkey, to make its contribution on the issue. Cem expressed the Turkish government's appreciation of China's stance on the issue.

Cem also expressed the hope that China would play a more active role on the Cyprus issue. Tang said that the Chinese government was pleased to see the beginning of direct talks between the Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, hoping that the two sides would find an early solution based on the relevant U.N. resolutions through peaceful negotiations. China, as a permanent member of U.N. Security Council, will work together with the international community and make its own contribution to help solve the Cyprus issue.