China and Turkey intend to raise their trade to 50 billion dollars by 2015 from an expected 17 billion dollars this year, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. "We set ourselves a timetable. We agreed to increase our trade volume to 50 billions dollars in 2015 and...to 100 billion dollars (71 billion euros) in 2020," Erdogan told a joint press conference with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
He said the two sides had also agreed to carry out their trade in their national currencies. Wen underlined the two country's desire to raise their ties to the level of a "strategic partnership". "This will be an important milestone in our relations," he said through a translator. The two leaders were speaking after ministers from both sides signed eight agreements on deepening economic ties, collaborating in infrastructure projects in third countries, increasing co-operation in transport and furthering cultural exhanges.
The trade volume between Turkey and China stood at 14.2 billion dollars (10.2 billion euros) in 2009 - 12.6 billion dollars of which consisted of Chinese exports. Wen said his country was not opposed to looking into ways to redress the imbalance. "The Chinese side will carry out a study in order to sustain our trade without giving a huge deficit," he added. Wen, the first Chinese premier to visit Turkey for eight years, will travel to Istanbul later on Friday for talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul. He will meet businessmen and tour the city's historical sites on Saturday before returning home.
Turkey is the last stop on Wen's stormy European tour - overshadowed by a currency debate - which has already taken him to Greece, Belgium and Brussels. In Athens, he pledged investment and support to cash-strapped Greece and announced the creation of a five-billion-dollar (3.6-billion-euro) fund to help finance the purchase of Chinese ships by Greek shipping companies.