Turkey and China conclude $3.6 billion currency swap protocol: Erdogan

China and Turkey have reached a $3.6 billion swap deal, boosting the present currency protocol up to $6 billion.

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed the deal on Sunday, according to business-focused news agency Bloomberg, which will permit Turkey to increase dealings in national currency, rather than US dollars.

This should help bolster central bank holdings, the report says.

Turkish President Erdogan did not reveal when this consensus was finalised.

The two nations concluded their initial swap protocol back in 2012, with later agreements permitting Turkish businesses to make purchases from China in yuan.

Though China is one of Turkey's most significant economic associates, this deepening of economic ties comes amid the continued plight of China's Uighurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province.

In April, Turkey summoned the Chinese ambassador after social media posts from his office criticised two senior politicians in Turkey for speaking out against the treatment of Uighurs in China, which some countries have classed as a genocide.

Erdogan has been seen as a fighter for Uighur rights, however, campaigners have previously suggested Turkish economic relations with Beijing have compelled it to permit the extradition of Uighurs.

While not sent to China itself, a 2020 article in The Sunday Telegraph claimed there are Uighurs who have been transported to countries such as Tajikistan, where they were at danger of being sent on to China.

The news also comes as the Turkish president on Monday meets Joe Biden, president of China's key rival, the US, on the outskirts of a NATO summit.

The widely anticipated meeting comes amid staunch disagreements, including over the 1915 Armenian Genocide, which Turkey denies and which Biden recognised in April.