Turkmenistan president launches book in Chinese

Chinese-language version of a new book written by Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was officially published in Beijing on Sunday during his visit to China this week.

The book, named "happy bird", is about the president's father's story during the Second World War in Soviet Union. It reveals the long history of Turkmenistan and the nation's strong spirits.

Su Rong, vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, launching the book said it will enhance the understanding of the people from the two countries, especially at a time when China and Turkmenistan are witnessing an increasing interaction in economy, trade and energy sectors.

Wang Dongjin, president of PetroChina Co Ltd, said publishing the book will accelerate not only cultural exchanges between the two countries, but also increase energy cooperation.

With China making efforts to diversify its energy supply, it has increased its natural gas import from the Central Asia while Turkmenistan, a country rich in oil and gas resources, is playing an important role to boost China's natural gas imports.

In September, China and Turkmenistan signed a natural gas deal that allows China to import 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from the latter and increase it to 65 billion cubic meters in the future when infrastructure and other related conditions are met.

According to PetroChina, Turkmenistan will export 40 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China in 2015 and by the year 2021, it could grow to 65 billion cubic meters.

PetroChina was responsible for translating and publishing the new book.

Prior to this book, Berdymukhamedov has published three Chinese-versions of his books during his visit to Beijing in 2011.