Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday during a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, where China said the two leaders agreed to expand cooperation on trade, transportation and technology.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a China-led regional bloc founded in 2001 that includes Russia, India, Iran and Central Asian states. Turkey is not a full member but participates as a “dialogue partner,” a status that allows it to attend summits without voting rights.
According to Beijing’s readout, the sides will link China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure and investment plan, with Turkey’s Middle Corridor project, which aims to create a trade and transport route from Asia to Europe through the South Caucasus and Turkey. They also agreed to develop a southern branch of the China–Europe Railway Express, a freight rail network connecting China to Europe and to cooperate in sectors such as renewable energy, 5G and biomedicine. Turkey reaffirmed its support for the one-China policy, which recognizes Beijing’s sovereignty over Taiwan.
China said the countries would also coordinate more closely at the United Nations, the Group of 20 major economies and the SCO and support each other on core interests and counterterrorism.
The talks came as Ankara announced it will hold a 5G spectrum tender — the auction of frequency bands needed to operate next-generation mobile networks — on October 16, with commercial service scheduled to begin in April 2026.