ISTANBUL, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Mayor of Turkey's Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu on Thursday congratulated Chinese people on the 71st anniversary of China's founding in a video message.

"On this occasion, I would like to express that the good relations between the Turks and the Chinese have been going on for thousands of years," said Imamoglu, speaking of the intense cooperation between Istanbul and some Chinese cities.

He pointed out that the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has sister city relations with Shanghai, Guangzhou, a cooperation protocol with Xi'an, and a memorandum of understanding with Hangzhou.

"China is one of the countries that our municipality has the most international connections," the mayor noted, adding that these mutual relations, based on solid foundations, will be further developed with diverse projects and concrete steps in the upcoming period.

According to Imamoglu, Istanbul has already experienced the reflections of this friendship with several cooperation programs with China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I would like to thank our sister cities in China and the country for all their support," Imamoglu said, delivering his "greetings and respect to all the Chinese people."