ANKARA 

Turkish exports to Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries have skyrocketed 85% over the last five years from a value of $14.1 billion in 2019 to nearly $26.1 billion in 2023. 

The share of these countries in Türkiye's overall exports last year was 10%.

Türkiye’s imports from SCO member countries also reached $106.3 billion last year, around double the $55.6 billion total in 2019.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following his visits last year to Kazakhstan to attend the 10th Summit of the Organization of Turkic States and Uzbekistan to attend the 16th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization, will also attend the SCO heads of state summit in Kazakhstan this week.

In addition to energy agreements made by the SCO member states, which control a significant portion of the world's natural gas reserves, the benefits of transportation and infrastructure projects connecting the countries are also noteworthy.

In this context, Türkiye is taking part in China's Belt and Road Initiative project.

In addition, an agreement on a China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project, which is planned to be built under the initiative, was signed last month.   

*Writing by Sahika Olgun