On July 23, 2009, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun met with the visiting Turkish media delegation.

Zhai welcomed the visit of the Turkish media delegation. He said that the mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Turkey in various fields has yielded productive results in recent years. There were frequent exchanges of visits between the state leaders. The level of economic and trade cooperation was raised steadily. The cultural and people-to-people exchanges were getting increasingly closer. The two sides showed understanding to each other on the matter that involves the fundamental interest of the two sides and maintained good cooperation in international organizations and other multilateral areas. In June this year, Turkish President Abdullah Gul paid a successful state visit to China. The leaders of the two countries reached important consensus on promoting the in-depth cooperation between China and Turkey in various fields. The related agencies of the two countries also signed a series of cooperation agreements. Those important results were encouraging.

Zhai Jun then expounded on the truth of the Urumqi "7·5" incident and China's position on the incident. He stressed that the Chinese side welcomes the Turkish media delegation to cover news stories in Xinjiang. That is a reflection of high attention paid by the Chinese side to strengthening the relations between the two countries and the exchanges between the media communities. He hoped that the members of the delegation could cover the news stories objectively and impartially, pass what they saw, heard, and experienced in China to the Turkish people through media reporting and play an active role in promoting mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of China and Turkey and boosting the continuous development of Chinese-Turkish relations.

Zhai Jun answered questions concerning the Chinese-Turkish relations, the cooperation between the two countries and other relevant topics.

The Turkish media delegation visited China at the invitation of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition to Beijing, the delegation will also visit Xinjiang for news coverage.