On the morning of June 6, 2012, Chinese President Hu Jintao held talks in the Great Hall of the People with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov who is here in China for the SCO summit.

Hu said since the establishment of diplomatic ties 20 years ago, bilateral relations have maintained a good momentum of sustained, healthy and stable development, and cooperation in various fields is expanding and has achieved satisfactory results. China attaches great importance to relations with Turkmenistan and deems it as a sincere friend, intimate brother and reliable partner. No matter how the international and regional situation may change, China will as always support the policy of permanent neutrality adopted by the Turkmen government as well as its efforts to maintain stability, develop economy and improve people's livelihood. China is ready to work with Turkmenistan and take the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations as a new starting point to build more vibrant friendly cooperative relations with richer connotation.

Hu raised proposals on promoting pragmatic cooperation between the two countries in the following aspects. First, both sides should deepen natural gas cooperation, expand non-resources cooperation, implement the program between the two governments on cooperation in several economic areas and push forward cooperation on transportation, communications, chemical industry, textile, agriculture, health, and high-tech. Second, both sides should expand cultural cooperation, keep closer friendly exchanges between non-governmental organizations, arts groups, youth and media of the two countries and hold culture day events to consolidate the social basis of bilateral friendship. Third, both sides should strengthen security cooperation. The law enforcement agencies of the two countries should strengthen communication to push bilateral security cooperation to achieve substantial results.

Turkmenistan-China relations have enjoyed a rather stable development and the two countries hold the same positions and show mutual understanding and support for each other on many major international and regional issues, he added. The bilateral economic, trade and energy cooperation is flourishing. Turkmenistan hopes to take the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries as a new starting point to strengthen high-level exchanges, enhance mutual trust and deepen cooperation so as to realize common development and promote peace, stability, and prosperity in Central Asia.

Berdymukhamedov said that Turkmenistan is willing to expand oil and gas cooperation between the two countries, establish long-term stable supply and demand partnership with China, and promote international energy security. He hoped that both sides will expand economic and trade exchanges and explore new cooperation in the fields of transportation, infrastructure construction, communications, textile, machinery manufacturing and finance. Turkmenistan is willing to promote bilateral tourism and sports exchanges. Turkmenistan will continue to firmly support China on issues concerning China's core interests, strengthen law enforcement and security cooperation between the two countries and jointly combat the "three forces", drug trafficking and other cross-border criminal activities.

Prior to the talks, President Hu held a welcome ceremony for Berdymukhamedov's visit at the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People. State Councilor Dai Bingguo, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission Zhang Ping, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming and Chinese Ambassador to Turkmenistan Xiao Qinghua attended the welcome ceremony.