President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, who arrived on a working visit to the capital of Shanxi Province of the People’s Republic of China on May 18 to participate in the Central Asia-China Summit, held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the afternoon, TDH reports.

- Today’s summit is the second one in the current year, - the leader of the friendly country said, reaffirming China’s commitment to expanding cooperation with Turkmenistan.

Particular emphasis was placed on the significance of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov’s state visit to China in January 2023, which resulted in important agreements being reached and a package of documents signed to facilitate further interaction.

Building up the Turkmen-Chinese cooperation fully meets the interests of our peoples, the President of the People’s Republic of China emphasized, expressing confidence that joint efforts will continue to be made to develop bilateral partnership, which is of a strategic nature.

President Serdar Berdimuhamedov noted that the current visit to a friendly country is a good opportunity for a thorough exchange of views on a wide range of issues of bilateral cooperation.

As emphasized, the main factor in the development of Turkmen-Chinese relations is the open, trusting, constructive dialogue that has developed at the highest state level. Our countries are developing trade and economic partnership in accordance with previously reached agreements and programs. An example of this is the recent increase in the volume of bilateral trade.

There is great potential for building up mutual trade, investment, implementation of joint projects in the field of energy, transport and communications, industries such as chemical, petrochemical, electrical engineering and other areas. At the same time, an important role is given to the activities of the Turkmen-Chinese Committee for Cooperation.

The key priority of interaction is the fuel and energy sector. Since the end of 2009, uninterrupted supplies of Turkmen natural gas to China have been carried out through the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline. In continuation of the topic, an exchange of views took place on the development of cooperation in this area, taking into account the national energy policy of Turkmenistan, based on the diversification of energy supplies to international markets.

Also during the meeting, prospects for expanding cooperation in the transport and communications sector were noted. Today, the partnership in the field of railway transport is being strengthened. Specialists of the two countries are cooperating in order to form transport and transit corridors in the East-West direction. With the commissioning of the North-South railway line in 2014, the railway container transportation route along the China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran line was developed, which is the shortest overland route for the export of Chinese goods to the Middle East.

In this regard, the possibilities of adding up joint efforts to fully unlock the potential of transportation from China through Turkmenistan to Europe, the Middle East by all modes of transport, including railways and roads, air traffic, sea routes, using infrastructure, in particular the International Seaport of Turkmenbashi on Caspian Sea.

As noted, it is obvious that the quality and volume of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries can and should be significantly increased, brought into line with objective realities and existing prospects. At the same time, the importance of entering into specific projects, using the geographical and infrastructural advantages of the two countries, searching for new directions, including in the non-primary sector, in the field of high technologies and in other sectors, was emphasized.