Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to visit China on Wednesday and Thursday at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

This is the first visit to China for Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the Turkish President and the third as the leader of ruling Justice and Development Party.

China's special envoy on Middle East affairs Gong Xiaosheng says Erdogan's visit will help boost mutual understanding between the two sides.

"Both sides have attached great importance to Erdogan's visit to China. Substantial talks will be held on various areas like trade, culture and tourism during this visit. Special attention will be paid to economic and trade cooperation. China and Turkey may try to explore ways deepen cooperations on transportation, energy and telecommunications, which is conducive to the common interest of both sides."

The trade volume between China and Turkey has been over 20 billion dollars since 2012, and China has become the second economic partner for Turkey.

Moreover, cultural exchanges between China and Turkey have also been growing quickly in recent years.

"China and Turkey jointly celebrated the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. The Year of China in Turkey was held in 2012 and the Year of Turkey in China was held in 2013. Chinese tourists can be seen almost everywhere in Turkey. At the same time, a great number of Turkish people are doing business in China."

Speaking of international and regional affairs, Gong Xiaosheng says China and Turkey share the same ideas on many issues.

"Turkey plays an important role in many international and regional problems, especially on the Middle East issue. It will do good to the situation in the Middle East when more countries get involved in promoting the Middle East peace process. We hope more and more countries will play its constructive role in improving the situation in the Middle East. We will actively strengthen our cooperation with Turkey in the hope of creating more favorable conditions to tackle regional issus."

Gong Xiaosheng also believes that China and Turkey should have closer cooperation in the global struggle against terrorism.