Azernews.Az

ANKARA – Turkey and China aim to raise bilateral trade to $50 billion a year by 2015 from about $17 billion currently under a new "strategic partnership", the prime ministers of the two countries said on Friday, Reuters reported.

Both members of the G20 group of rich and developing countries, Turkey and China have two of the fastest growing big economies in the world. Inward-looking just a few decades ago, they are now looking to boost their global influence to reflect their economic muscle.

"We have decided bilaterally to establish a strategic partnership in our relations," visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in the capital Ankara.

Erdogan said both countries had agreed to use their own currencies, rather than dollars, in bilateral trade and singled out energy cooperation on nuclear power as a promising driver of trade with with China.

"In all of our relations, we have agreed to use the lira and yuan," Erdogan said, after the two leaders signed eight deals in areas including transportation and trade.

The press conference was held after the Nobel Committee announced the Peace prize had been awarded to jailed Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo, but neither Wen nor Erdogan took questions.

Turkey's ties with China have been complicated at times because of Beijing's heavy-handed approach to unrest in Xinjiang, home to China's Muslim Turkic minority of Uighurs.