Sino-Turkmen partnership strengthened

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-30 08:18

ASHGABAT: President Hu Jintao and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on Friday agreed to deepen collaboration on security and energy.

"China and Turkmenistan have maintained mutual political trust at a high level since the two forged diplomatic ties 16 years ago," Hu, who arrived here for a state visit on Thursday night, said.

Noting security cooperation is an important part of relations between China and Central Asian nations, Hu told Berdymukhamedov of China's hopes to deepen security cooperation between the law enforcement and security departments of the two countries through information exchange, expertise sharing and personnel training.

Berdymukhamedov said China is Turkmenistan's "most important and reliable" partner, pointing out that the two countries have carried out sound cooperation in the energy, transportation and telecommunications sectors.

He said energy cooperation constitutes an important part of bilateral cooperation.

The two governments have jointly launched a 10,000 km gas pipeline project that reportedly starts from Turkmenistan's Amu-darya River region and passes through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, before winding its way into China's central, eastern and southern regions.

On its completion, the pipeline is expected to see an annual transmission capacity of 30 billion cu m that will last for 30 years.

During the talks, Berdymukhamedov also praised the Beijing Olympic Games and Hu responded by thanking him for his country's support for the event.

A joint statement was released after their talks, which said a Sino-Turkmen cooperation committee is to be founded to comprehensively promote bilateral cooperation in trade, energy, security, culture and education.

Both countries will create favorable conditions to expedite contracted projects and make sure the Sino-Turkmen natural gas pipeline goes into service as scheduled next year.

Turkmenistan is the final stop on Hu's three-nation tour, which also took him to the Republic of Korea and Tajikistan.

Xinhua - China Daily