On the morning of October 8, 2010, the Chinese and Turkish governments signed eight cooperation documents in the Turkish capital of Ankara. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who is on an official visit to Turkey, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the signing ceremony.

The agreements covered such areas as economic and trade cooperation, infrastructure and technology consulting cooperation in the third country, cultural exchanges, information and communication technology cooperation, maritime cooperation and railway cooperation. Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming, Minister of Culture Cai Wu, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun signed the documents on behalf of the Chinese government.

At the press conference held later, Wen said he held long fruitful talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreeing to strengthen exchanges and consultations between both sides. China will strive to ensure sustained trade growth. The two countries decided to enhance cooperation on infrastructure, electric power and railway. China is ready to enhance coordination with the Turkish side in multilateral organizations, said Wen, believing it will have significant and far-reaching influence on both sides.

Erdogan said his talks with Premier Wen were very successful. The eight cooperation agreements already signed and the joint declaration to be issued show that Turkey-China relations will achieve new development. The Turkish side is very satisfied with ties with China and will continue to push forward the relations. He expressed firm belief that Turkey-China relations will score greater development.

Premier Wen arrived in Ankara by special plane on the night of October 7 local time, kicking off his officials visit to Turkey. On the morning of October 8, Premier Wen held talks with Erdogan.

Turkey is the last leg of Premier Wen’s four-nation tour, which has taken him to Greece, Belgium and Italy. The Chinese premier also attended the 8th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the 13th China-European Union (EU) summit in Brussels.