China has called on Turkey to help it fight separatism in the northwest provinces, state media reported Monday.
Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, while meeting with Turkish Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu Sunday, said jointly fighting separatism was in the interests of both nations, according to Xinhua.
"The joint crackdown on national separatism, international terrorism and religious extremism as well as organized transnational crimes is in the interests of the two countries and peoples," Hu said.
It was also important to safeguard tranquility, stability and development in the region, he added.
China places great emphasis on its relations with Turkey, partly to stave off Muslim forces in Turkey assisting the separatist campaign in China's tense region of Xinjiang.
The two countries recently agreed to cooperate on fighting insurgency.
Turkey had agreed to crackdown on separatist groups with connections to Xinjiang. China in the meantime had increased the amount of imports from Turkey by 10-fold.
Hu's meeting with Cakmakoglu came two days after a military vehicle carrying explosives exploded in a traffic jam in a suburb of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. The explosion killed 60 people and injured 173 others.
The cause of the investigation has not been revealed but officials have not ruled out separatists' links.
Hu on Sunday said China was willing to work with Turkey to promote cooperation between the two countries, including in the area of armed forces.
He noted the two countries had made progress in bilateral relations in recent years.
Separatist sentiment among ethnic minorities in Xinjiang has been further exacerbated by the migration of some 4.6 million Han Chinese to the region.
In February 1997 three buses were blown up in Urumqi, killing nine people and injuring 74. Another blast the following month in Beijing, injured 10 people, and was unofficially blamed on separatists.
The Chinese government has executed 24 separatist activists this year alone.
Beijing blames Afghanistan-backed religious extremists and terrorists in neighboring Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikstan for smuggling arms and supporting separatist groups - BEIJING (AFP)
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