Sino-Turkic economic policies were strengthened in the 20th century. The 1970s saw developments in Turkish foreign policy and Turkey’s relationship with China. The international Cold War trade divisions of the Eastern and Western Blocs were loosening as the Sino- American relationship was strengthening. The US Congress put an embargo on trade with Turkey in 1975 in response to the Cyprus Dispute, because of their opposition to the Turkish operation of sending troops to Cyprus on July 20, 1974. Ankara now needed to seek relations with socialist nations that were not found in the Arab World, so began to prioritise developing the policy with Asia for their own national interest. Turkey then turned to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) for support, since it was a member of the UN Security Council, which gave it increasing leverage in world politics. Ankara was able to enter the rampantly growing Chinese market, and purchase weapons and missile systems that they no longer could acquire from the West. From the 1970s, Ankara began to standardise the development of Asian Foreign Policy.