Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Turkmenistan and China have signed a number of bilateral documents to develop stronger strategic partnership.

The sides signed the bilateral documents as part of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov's visit to China on May 11-14, local Turkmen media reported.

President Berdymukhamedov and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the two countries, a joint declaration on the development and deepening of the strategic partnership, the statement on the acceptance of the Plan for development of the strategic partnership between the two countries for 2014-2018.

Also, Turkmenistan and China signed a number of important documents, including the agreements on deepening stable cooperation in the field of natural gas, on the safe and stable operation of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline, on the economic and technical cooperation, on the basic principles of cooperation in the field of transport, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the cooperation in the field of agriculture, a cooperation agreement between Turkmen State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs and the Export-Import Bank of China and others.

In his remarks Turkmen president said the trade turnover between the two countries grew by 20 times in 2007-2013 to about $10 billion last year.

Given the ever-increasing potential of the two countries, as well as the areas of mutual interest, Turkmenistan and China have all the conditions to increase the volume of bilateral trade to $20 billion over the next five years, the president added.

China, a major energy consumer, and Turkmenistan, a major energy producer, enjoy a natural advantage and huge potential in energy cooperation.

China is one of the key buyers of Turkmen gas, and intends to increase its annual purchases up to 65 billion cubic meters of gas.

Turkmenistan is one of the key players in the energy market of the resource-rich Caspian region. The Central Asian state has the world's fourth largest natural gas reserves after Russia, Iran, and Qatar, and produces about 70-80 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

As part of its energy strategy, Turkmenistan plans to increase the production volume and export of natural gas, and diversify the routes of supply to major world markets.

Under the Program for Oil and Gas Development, the country's annual natural gas production is planned to reach 250 billion cubic meters by 2030, mostly for export purposes.