Questioning Turkey's China Trade, Summer 2011

Turkey’s current foreign policy is marked by a multidimensional and proactive stance with an emphasis on economic relations both at a bilateral and multilateral level. An important component of this new paradigm is improving relations with hitherto neglected regions, and China is in this sense one of the countries that has begun to loom large in Turkey’s foreign policy vision. This essay focuses on the economic relations between the two countries and suggests that four questions need to be addressed if Turkey is to develop its relations with China in a way that is not only beneficial but also sustainable and progressive in the long term. The essay concludes that there is evidence of progress in all of four areas, albeit some distance to go.