Turkmenistan has fully repaid loans to China allocated earlier for the implementation of gas projects. This was announced by Vice-Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Shakhim Abdrakhmanov at a government meeting, which President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov chaired last Friday via video communication system.

 - Currently, these borrowed funds have been fully returned, about which on June 8, 2021, an official notification was received from the Xinjiang branch of the State Development Bank of China, - the Vice-Chairman said.

 The loans were attracted by the State Concern «Turkmengas» for the construction of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline and the industrial development of the Galkynysh gas field, a super-giant according to the international classification.

 Highly assessing relations with the PRC, which is one of the major economic partners of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that the Turkmen side attached great importance to the further development of bilateral ties, which were of a strategic nature, traditionally based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and mutual observance of interests.

 As the head of the state emphasized, the fact that Turkmenistan repaid the loans provided by China on time and in full demonstrated that our Fatherland, as economically powerful state, responsibly approached the fulfillment of its obligations. It further increased the authority of independent, permanently neutral Turkmenistan in the world arena.

 The leader of the nation addressed a number of specific instructions to the Vice-Chairman regarding the implementation of existing interstate agreements in the gas sector, as well as attracting foreign investments to the industry, entering new mutually beneficial joint projects.

 The Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline was commissioned in December 2009.  From that time until May of this year, 300 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas were exported to China via the pipeline. Today, Turkmenistan is the largest supplier of pipeline «blue fuel» to the «Celestial Empire».