AKIPRESS.COM - President Xi Jinping met with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who was on a visit to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

Xi Jinping stressed that the strategic cooperation between China and Turkmenistan in the natural gas sector has greatly boosted the economic and social development of the two countries and has broad prospects.

China is willing to work with Turkmenistan to strengthen overall planning with the future and a long-term perspective in mind, enlarge the volume and scale of natural gas cooperation between the two countries, fully tap the potential of cooperation, expand cooperation in the whole industrial chain, enrich the dimension of energy cooperation between the two countries, and elevate natural gas cooperation to a brand-new level, so as to achieve win-win outcomes and common development and prosperity of the two countries, he said.

The two sides should align the Belt and Road Initiative with Turkmenistan's strategy to revive the Great Silk Road at a faster speed and strengthen interconnectivity cooperation, Xi Jinping added.

China is willing to work with Turkmenistan to continue to strengthen vaccine cooperation and jointly build the immunity barrier. The two sides should deliver on setting up cultural centers mutually as soon as possible, and China is willing to speed up the establishment of Luban Workshop in Turkmenistan to help the country train more high-caliber skilled workers in all professions. Both sides should strengthen coordination and cooperation to jointly promote regional peace, h stated.

Berdimukhamedov said Turkmenistan and China are the sincerest and most reliable friends and partners. Thanks to the joint efforts of both sides, Turkmenistan-China cooperation has made significant progress on the basis of mutual benefit, equality and mutual trust in recent years. The deepening cooperation in the oil and gas sector, in particular, has brought tangible benefits to the two peoples. Turkmenistan is willing to cooperate with China to tap into the potential, speed up the construction of Line D of the Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline and other important cooperation projects, and expand exchanges and cooperation in other fields, so as to elevate Turkmenistan-China relations to a higher level and write a more splendid new chapter.

The virtual summit between five Central Asian countries and China held not long ago was very successful, and Turkmenistan is willing to continue to strengthen communication and cooperation with China in this regard, President Berdimuhamedov said.