Xi meets Turkmen president on deepening cooperation

BEIJING - President Xi Jinping on Saturday met with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, expressing readiness to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation on all fronts and build more substantial, vibrant and dynamic China-Turkmenistan relations.

Berdymukhamedov attended Friday's opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

Xi said the strategic cooperation between China and Turkmenistan in natural gas has greatly promoted the economic and social development of the two countries and has broad prospects.

China stands ready to work with Turkmenistan to enlarge the volume and scale of natural gas cooperation, expand collaboration in the whole industry chain, and enrich bilateral energy cooperation to raise the natural gas cooperation to a new level, Xi said.

Xi called on both sides to align the Belt and Road Initiative with Turkmenistan's development strategy to revive the Great Silk Road at a faster speed, and strengthen connectivity cooperation.