EXPO Commissioner of Turkey Muge Varol Ilicak (left) presents a gift to Turkish Ambassador to China Abdulkadir Emin Önen. Photo: Courtesy of the Turkish Embassy

The closing ceremony for the Turkish National Pavilion at the Beijing Horticultural Expo 2019 took place at the Turkish Embassy in China on Thursday, drawing media representatives together to take a closer look at Turkish culture and cuisine. A promotional video for the Turkish National Pavilion at this year's Expo was played during the event.

In the Turkish Ambassador to China Abdulkadir Emin Önen's opening remarks, he addressed the significance of the Expo to the promotion of Turkey to the Chinese audience. "As you will recall, China participated with a beautiful garden at EXPO 2016 Antalya and the Chinese government generously donated the garden to Turkey. The Chinese garden in Turkey and the Turkish Pavilion in Beijing will surely be symbols of friendship and cooperation between our two countries," Önen said.

In recent years, both China and Turkey have witnessed the deepening of bilateral ties in political, economic, trade, and cultural sectors. Given this context, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Turkey reached over 400,000 in 2018, an increase of 60 percent compared to the same period of 2017. Today, China is one of Turkey's largest trade partner in Asia and its third-largest in the world.

"In light of the vision shared by our Presidents, I am positive that the long-lasting Turkish-Chinese friendship that is worthy of our ancient civilizations will be further strengthened by our presence at Expo Beijing," Önen said. "We will continue our efforts to deepen our strategic cooperation with China in order to make Turkey a priority market and destination for Chinese investors and tourists, and turn China into a primary market for Turkish exporters."

The Expo commissioner of Turkey Muge Varol Ilicak also gave a speech, in which she introduced the Turkish National Pavilion and Turkey overall. "Starting from the opening ceremony, which was held on April 29, in line with our ambition to be the most attractive pavilion of the Expo, we planned several public-facing activities," Ilicak said. "We believe that these activities contributed significantly to the representation of our country and [will] lead to significant opportunities to further improve our mutual and multilateral relations in the fields of botany and horticulture as well as many others."

Traditional Turkish cuisines were presented to the audience, enjoyed together with Turkish music and dancing.