China ready to strengthen cooperation with Turkmenistan: FM

ASHGABAT - China is willing to beef up cooperation with Turkmenistan in various areas, visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Monday.

China sees Turkmenistan as a truly reliable strategic partner, and the development of bilateral ties has maintained sound momentum under the strategic guidance of the heads of state, Wang said during talks with Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov.

China will firmly support Turkmenistan in taking a development path suited to its own national conditions, its commitment to permanent neutrality, and its measures to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests, said Wang.

China, he said, is willing to take the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to work with Turkmenistan to deepen political mutual trust, expand all-round cooperation, enhance coordination on major international and regional issues, and turn the high-level cooperation into more concrete results that will benefit the two peoples.

China will continue to provide COVID-19 vaccines to Turkmenistan and back its efforts to fight the pandemic, said the minister.

China is ready to step up cooperation with Turkmenistan in traditional and non-traditional security fields and help the country safeguard its national security, he said.

Wang suggested that both countries seek to ratchet up the scale of cooperation in natural gas to solve existing problems, increase cooperation in oil and gas processing, new energy, green energy, nuclear energy so that the two countries can forge a long-term strategic partnership in the energy sector.

The top Chinese diplomat also proposed that the two countries explore more opportunities in non-natural resources sectors to make bilateral cooperation more diversified and multi-faceted.

Together with Turkmenistan, China is ready to speed up the alignment of China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative with Turkmenistan's development strategy to revive the Great Silk Road, create new growth areas like digital economy and cross-border e-commerce, implement cooperation in production capacity and investment, establish an interconnected network, advance agricultural and sci-tech cooperation, and expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the party's founding this year, China has found a development path suited to its national conditions and is widely supported by the people, Wang noted.

While China's development marks an increase in the forces of peace and developing countries, Wang said some Western forces attempted to impede China's development by spreading disinformation, by meddling in China's internal affairs on the pretext of human rights, and by politicizing COVID-19 origin tracing in a bid to shift their responsibility for the botched response to the pandemic.

He said that China is ready to work with Turkmenistan to safeguard the basic norms governing international relations, including non-interference in other's internal affairs, jointly uphold international equity and justice, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries.