On June 8, 2010, Turkish President Abdullah Gul met with Chinese President Hu Jintao's special representative and State Councilor Dai Bingguo on the sidelines of the third summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Istanbul, Turkey.
Gul first conveyed his cordial greetings and good wishes to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao and thanked the Chinese side for sending a high-level delegation to the CICA summit. Gul said he was pleased to see positive efforts to implement the consensus reached between him and President Hu on boosting relations between China and Turkey. He noted the strong and rapid development of the bilateral friendship and cooperation, including the quick growth of Turkish exports to China. Gul emphasized that Turkey attached great importance to developing relations with China, an influential country in the world, and hoped to strengthen strategic planning, enhance coordination in international affairs, keep closer high-level contacts and deepen exchanges and cooperation to push bilateral ties to a new level.
Dai first conveyed the cordial greetings and best wishes of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to President Gul. Dai said Israel's recent raid on a Turkish humanitarian aid convoy, which had resulted in heavy casualties, should be condemned. He also offered condolences to the families of victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery. China was glad to see Turkey enjoying rapid development and increasing international influence, Dai said, noting the positive and strong development of relations between the two countries in recent years.
China attached great importance to the relations with Turkey and had been trying to handle them with a strategic and long-term approach. China was willing to work with Turkey for more visits by leaders and senior officials, more political trust, closer pragmatic cooperation and increased humanities exchanges in an effort to push for sound development of China-Turkey friendly cooperative relations in an all-round, in-depth and sustained manner, bring benefits to both peoples and make positive contributions to regional and world peace and stability, he said.