President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov held a bilateral meeting with President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping today in Samarkand. The Turkmen leader arrived in this Uzbek city today to participate as an honored guest at a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which will be held on September 15-16.

As reports the electronic version of the newspaper “Turkmenistan”, the negotiations were held in the complex “Forumlar mazhmuasi”, which became the residence of the Chinese leader during his visit to Samarkand.

During the meeting, Serdar Berdimuhamedov stated that Turkmenistan is ready for further development of multifaceted cooperation with the People's Republic of China. In this regard, the effective nature of cooperation in the political, diplomatic, trade, economic, energy, transport and logistics, cultural and humanitarian spheres was emphasized, and specific proposals were made to further expand its scope.

At the meeting, it was emphasized that Turkmenistan and China are developing active cooperation in the “Central Asia – China” format, implementing specific measures within the framework of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative and the project to restore the Great Silk Road.

At the end of the meeting, Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Xi Jinping expressed confidence that the Turkmen-Chinese relations based on the principles of friendship, mutual trust and respect would continue to strengthen.

Let us remind that Serdar Berdimuhamedov will participate for the first time as an honored guest in a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO Member States after taking office as President of Turkmenistan in March this year.

Earlier it was reported that on the sidelines of the summit, the Turkmen leader would hold bilateral talks with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.