Xi urges more 'political trust' with Turkey
President Xi Jinping met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, urging "political mutual trust" between the two sides during a regional security meeting in Central Asia. Xi and Erdogan met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Turkey is a dialogue partner of the SCO, which was set up in 2001 and consists of China, India, Pakistan, Russia and four Central Asian states. "The two sides should consolidate political mutual trust, respect each other's core interests and consolidate the political foundation of China-Turkey strategic cooperative relations," Xi said, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. "We should focus on development cooperation [and] give full play to the role of various cooperation mechanisms and respective strengths between the two countries," he said. Xi also pushed for more cooperation on his signature Belt and Road global trade initiative, and said the two countries should "contribute to safeguarding international industrial and supply chains, food and energy security", according to CCTV. The president has met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's Ebrahim Raisi at the regional security summit, which he is attending on his first trip abroad since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. (AFP)