Chinese parliamentary delegation visits Turkish Parliament

Vice-chairman of China's National People's Congress, Zu Tianhong, and an accompanying delegation on Tuesday visited the Deputy Speaker of Turkish Parliament Mehmet Saglam in Ankara.

Speaking to reporters while receiving the Chinese parliamentary delegation, Saglam said that he was honored to welcome the Chinese delegation to the Turkish Parliament.

You have honored us by your visit. We may be far away to each other today but we were neighbors a thousand years ago. We are celebrating the 40th year of relations between our countries, Saglam stated.

Turkish-Chinese relations gained a new momentum with Chinese premier's visit to Turkey in 2010. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's current visit to China will help boost relations in all fields, Saglam noted.

We plan to increase mutual trade volume to 50 billion USD from the present 24 billion USD. This is not a dream. There is no serious problem between Turkey and China. China is the world champion in economic development. But Turkey follows you. We believe that mutual visits of officials from the two countries would contribute to relations. We expect to see more mutual visits, Saglam underlined.

Zu Tianhong, in his part, said that he was pleased to be visiting Turkey.

On Monday, we held talks with the political groups in the Turkish Parliament. Aside from the official relations, the relations between our peoples are crucial. The friendship between our two countries continues to grow. In 2012, Turkey hosts events as part of the "Year of China" in Turkey. In 2013, China will host events as part of the "Year of Turkey" in China, Tianhong stressed.

Such events will contribute to the development of relations, Tianhong noted.

Saglam later gave a tour of the Turkish Parliament's General Assembly to the Chinese delegation and hosted a lunch in honor of the delegation.