Xi Jinping secures greater security and energy ties with Turkmenistan
President secures strategic partnership with Central Asian republic and more natural gas shipments during stopover before G20 summit
President Xi Jinping and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov agreed yesterday to upgrade the status of their diplomatic ties to a strategic partnership.
Turkmenistan would boost its natural gas shipments to China by an additional 25 billion cubic metres (bcm) annually to up to 65 bcm a year by 2020, senior Turkmen officials said.
Xi arrived in Turkmenistan's capital, Ashgabat, on his way to the G20 summit in St Petersburg, Russia. He will visit neighbouring Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on the way back.
In a written statement delivered upon his arrival, Xi said China and Turkmenistan were important neighbours with a strategic energy relationship.
"The Sino-Turkmen relationship has a solid foundation and rich content," Xi said. "The co-operation between our two nations has been continuously improving. It is time for our two nations to upgrade our strategic partnership."
Xi and Berdimuhamedov signed a joint declaration raising each other's diplomatic status, Xinhua reported. They also oversaw the signing of a purchase-and-sale agreement for 25 bcm of Turkmen gas a year between China National Petroleum Corporation and TurkmenGas.
China has imported 60 bcm of natural gas from Central Asia since 2009, Deputy Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said ahead of Xi's trip. China has become the largest trade partner of Turkmenistan, with bilateral trade reaching US$10.3 billion last year, up from US$4.5 million in 1992.