OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2011. The Turkmen-Chinese top level talks were held in Beijing during the state visit of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to the People’s Republic of China. The summit which marked a new step to intensify the traditional dialogue of friendship and mutually advantageous cooperation between the two states and nations was a success.

In the morning the President’s cortege headed from the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse to the Tiananmen Square in the centre of Beijing. The official ceremony of greeting the distinguished guest took place in the People's Assembly Hall. President of the People’s Republic of China Hu Jintao cordially greeted the Turkmen leader in the foyer of the People’s Assembly Hall.

After the official ceremony was concluded PRC President Hu Jintao invited President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to enter the Minor Southern Hall of the People’s Assembly Hall where the one-to-one top level talks were held.

Cordially greeting the Turkmen leader, Hu Jintao thanked the President of Turkmenistan for accepting the invitation to pay a state visit to China. Stating that China sought to enhance further full cooperation with Turkmenistan, President Hu Jintao expressed belief that these talks would enable to identify priority options for mutually advantageous partnership and make it more dynamic to meet mutual interests and modern realities.

Cordially thanking President Hu Jintao for inviting to pay a visit to China, the cordial welcome and hospitality extended to the Turkmen delegation in the country, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that Turkmenistan viewed China as a priority partner whom it built relations with on a strategic and long-term basis.

During the meeting the sides discussed a wide spectrum of aspects of Turkmen-Chinese cooperation and identified its priorities. The trade and economic, fuel and energy, industrial, transport and communications, agricultural, textile, health care and high tech sector were mentioned as the promising fields of cooperation. Underlining the important role of humanitarian cooperation, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President Hu Jintao called for strengthening and enhancing contacts between Turkmenistan and China in the cultural, scientific and educational spheres.

The leaders of the two states discussed a number of critical issues of international and issues of international and regional of mutual interest.

Then the government delegations of Turkmenistan and China joined in the talks which were held in the Big Eastern Hall.

Reaffirming that China sought to promote fruitful partnership with Turkmenistan on a long-term basis, Hu Jintao expressed belief that these talks would add a new page to the history of the interstate dialogue cemented by the indissoluble ties of friendship and goodwill of the two nations.

Noting that 20 years had passed since Turkmenistan and China established diplomatic relations, Hu Jintao emphasized that over these years the two countries had been supporting each other’s views on all key issues and maintaining the dynamics of cooperation meeting national interests. The PRC President said China attached considerable significance to relations with Turkmenistan emphasizing that his country stood ready to enhance further multifaceted partnership and intensify traditional contacts with Turkmenistan in mutual interests.

Then the floor was given to the President of Turkmenistan.

The Turkmen leader noted that a major factor for furthering the interstate dialogue was the high level of mutual understanding and support which was inherent in Turkmenistan and China. The countries’ views on key issues of international relations, particularly in the political sphere, coincide.

In this regard President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov underlined the critical role of closely cooperation in building the reliable security system in Central Asia on the basis of the balance of interests and commitment to using political and diplomatic means to tackle emerging challenges. “In this context Turkmenistan and China act as responsible members of the international community significantly contributing to the development of new mechanisms for cooperation and facilitating current positive trends in the region,” said the leader of the Turkmen state.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov underscored the effectiveness of Turkmen-Chinese collaboration within the international organisations, particularly the United Nations that met current interests of the peoples of Turkmenistan and China and had a positive influence on the situation in Asia and all over the world. In this context the leader of the Turkmen state expressed gratitude to the leadership of the People’s Republic of China for supporting Turkmenistan’s international initiatives particularly on global energy security and reliable and stable energy transit to world markets.

“We also highly appreciate China’s support for Turkmenistan’s candidature to the United Nations Economic and Social Council for the period of 2013-2015,” said the Turkmen leader.

Focusing with satisfaction on dynamic development of trade and economic contacts, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said bilateral trade had exceeded USD 3.5 billion this year. By this indicator, the People’s Republic of China became the largest trading partner of Turkmenistan. 37 enterprises with the share of Chinese capital operate in our country, 66 investment projects totally amounting to about USD 4.5 billion and over 2 billion Chinese yuans have been registered in Turkmenistan.

Chinese companies operate in the oil and gas, telecommunications, transport, agricultural, health care, construction sectors and the chemical, textile and food industries. In this context the leader of Turkmenistan emphasized that Chinese partners had earned a good reputation in all undertakings.

Touching upon the aspects of cooperation in the high tech sector, including the space sector, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said the vast opportunities to concert efforts existed in these sectors.

The Turkmen leader said a priority field of bilateral cooperation was the fuel and energy sector as before. A vivid illustration of it is the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline put into operation in late 2009.

“This project is an illustrative example of the fulfilment of the common objective to ensure the balance of interests of all participants of the international energy projects – energy producing, consuming and transit countries,” said President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. “Taking account of the increasing energy demand of the Chinese economy and Turkmenistan’s resource potential, particularly including the deposits of the Southern Yoloten, we together with Chinese partners are working now towards increasing Turkmen natural gas exports to the People’s Republic of China.”

In particular, the interstate agreement on these issues had been prepared and is expected to be signed during this visit.

Then the President of Turkmenistan said along with fruitful political relations, trade and economic cooperation, an important role in Turkmen-Chinese partnership was assigned to contacts in the spheres of science, education, culture, sport and tourism.

Focusing on the priority significance of the humanitarian sphere, the Turkmen leader called for promoting direct contacts between universities and institutes of Turkmenistan and the People’s Republic of China and suggesting drafting the programme of cooperation between Magtumguly Turkmen State University and the Peking University.

Noting that the peoples of Turkmenistan and China had cultural and scientific traditions as well as mutual interest in national arts and literature of each other, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov underlined the importance of holding the Days of Culture of Turkmenistan in China and the Days of Culture of China in Turkmenistan. Also emphasis was put on the appropriateness of regular contacts between research institutions of the two countries that would certainly contribute to mutual understanding and respect between the two nations and enhance their friendly relations even more.

Supporting fully the Turkmen leader’s estimation of Turkmen-Chinese relations, the PRC President said cooperation between the two countries had been filled with a new content and gained a new quality in recent years.

Focusing on partnership in the fuel and energy sector as a priority field of cooperation, President Hu Jintao expressed belief that this cooperation should be built on a long-term basis. Fruitful contacts needed to be developed not in the raw materials sector of the national economy but in such sectors as transport, telecommunications, infrastructure construction, said the Chinese leader emphasizing that in this regard China fully supported the position and initiatives of Turkmenistan that advocated multifaceted cooperation.

The Chinese leader also called for strengthening bilateral cooperation in such a strategic sphere as achieving security and stability in the region including through combating terrorism and trans-border crime.

After the talks were concluded, the ceremony of signing bilateral documents took place in the People’s Assembly Hall. To the applause of those present the leaders of the two states affixed their signatures to the Joint Declaration Turkmenistan and the People’s Republic of China on enhancement of Turkmen-Chinese relations of friendship and cooperation and the Agreement on additional natural gas supplies from Turkmenistan to China.

A number of other important documents designed to bring Turkmen-Chinese long-term partnership to a qualitatively new level. These included the Agreement on Cooperation between the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China; the Agreement on Trade and Economic Cooperation between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the People’s Republic of China; the Programme of Cooperation in a number of the economic sectors between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the People’s Republic of China; the Agreement on Technical and Economic Cooperation between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the People’s Republic of China; the Exchange of Letters on a non-repayable career training loan for officials of the MIA of Turkmenistan between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the People’s Republic of China; the Agreement on mutual recognition of documents for education and academic degrees between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the People’s Republic of China; the Agreement on Cooperation on standardization, metrology, certification and accreditation between the Government of Turkmenistan and the Government of the People’s Republic of China; the Plan of Cooperation between the Ministry of Culture of Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China for the period of 2012-2014; the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation on the exchange of information concerning money laundering and terrorist financing between the Ministry of Finance of Turkmenistan and the People’s Bank of China; the Agreement on Cooperation between the State Bank of Foreign Economic Relations of Turkmenistan and the China Development Bank; the Intergovernmental Preferential Credit Agreement for the purchase of oil and gas equipment between the State Bank of Foreign Economic Relations of Turkmenistan and the Export-Import Bank of China; the Agreement on Cooperation between the State Bank of Foreign Economic Relations of Turkmenistan and Bank of Kunlun Co., Ltd.

Then the leaders of the two states gave a press conference. Highly evaluating the outcomes of the talks, they noted that Turkmenistan and the People’s Republic of China effectively promoted mutually advantageous partnership in the fuel and energy, transport and communications, trade, agricultural, textile, chemical and other sectors.

Dwelling upon energy cooperation between the two states, the leaders provided the Turkmenistan-China as pipeline project as an illustrative example of its effectiveness.

The Turkmen leader informed that the two states were working towards expanding joint activities in the gas sector, noting that in accordance with the Agreement signed on that day natural gas exports to the People’s Republic of China from Turkmenistan were to be increased by 25 billion cubic metres

Thus, in the near future Turkmenistan will be supplying 65 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year to China.

Turkmenistan and China intended to expand contacts in the cultural and humanitarian spheres, including through holding the days of culture of Turkmenistan and China and other joint cultural activities, said President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

In the afternoon the Turkmen leader arrived at the Zhongnanhai government residence where President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov had a meeting with Wen Jiabao, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.

The meeting agenda focused on the possibilities to foster fruitful cooperation in the bilateral format and within the authoritative international organisations, particularly the United Nations.

Touching upon the aspects of trade and economic cooperation with the People’s Republic of China, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said it had been significantly intensified and diversified. In this context the Turkmen leader underlined a constructive role of the Turkmenistan-China Committee for Cooperation and fruitful operation of major Chinese in the fuel and energy, communications and telecommunications and other sectors in Turkmenistan.

Calling for facilitating business activities, the leader of Turkmenistan suggested establishing the Turkmenistan-China Union of Entrepreneurs in which the business circles of the two countries would be represented.

Wen Jiabao noted that Turkmenistan had a number of advantages, including the favourable geopolitical location, tremendous resources and economic potential and social and political stability inside the country. Taken together, these factors underlay the growing interest of foreign partners in Turkmenistan and open up new great prospects for international cooperation enabling the country to play a key role in the region.

On that day the leader of the Turkmen state held the talks with Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. The meeting with the head of the Chinese Parliament took place in the Fujian Hall of the People’s Assembly Hall.

Underlining the effectiveness and success of the Turkmen-Chinese talks in Beijing, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress focused on the unquestionable importance and significance of the Joint Declaration signed by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Hu Jintao for it secured priorities of the Turkmen-Chinese dialogue and set forth its primary aims and areas. Also, the head of the Chinese Parliament focused on the agreements on cooperation in the oil and gas sector which was deemed to be very promising and profitable. Wu Bangguo emphasized that this visit of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to Beijing had given significant results and would offer a new impetus to develop relations between Turkmenistan and China as brotherly nations and strategic partners.

During the meeting the Turkmen leader briefed the head of the Chinese Parliament on the activities of the Mejlis of Turkmenistan.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov dwelt upon the concept of the multilayer system of government and governance being developed in Turkmenistan and focused on the specific role of the new Constitution.

The leader of Turkmenistan and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress called for enhancing inter-parliamentary contacts and exchanging parliamentarian delegations on a regular basis that would certainly promote the fruitful and friendly interstate dialogue.

The President of Turkmenistan continues the state visit to the People’s Republic of China.