Chinese President Hu Jintao held talks on Wednesday with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The Turkmen president arrived in the Chinese capital Tuesday afternoon to attend a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Hu said he believes that Berdymukhamedov's visit to China for the summit would strongly boost the development of bilateral ties.

Over the past 20 years since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties, China-Turkmenistan relations have developed in a healthy and stable way and the countries' cooperation has scored satisfactory results, he said.

The Chinese side takes Turkmenistan as its sincere friend, close brother and reliable partner, Hu said, adding that China will always support Turkmenistan's permanently neutral policy and its efforts to preserve stability, grow its economy and promote its people's livelihood.

President Hu also tabled a number of suggestions to promote bilateral cooperation in such areas as the non-resources sector, transportation, telecommunications, chemical industry, textile, agriculture, medicine, high-tech, and security, as well as people-to-people and youth exchanges.

Berdymukhamedov said as a neutral state, Turkmenistan is willing to be actively engaged in regional and trans-regional cooperation projects within the framework of the SCO under the precondition that they are in line with his country's national interests and foreign policy.

Turkmenistan-China relations have enjoyed a rather stable development over the past 20 years and the two countries hold the same positions and support each other on many major regional and international issues, he added.

He also said the Turkmen side would like to expand the two nations' oil and natural gas cooperation, and forge a long-term and stable demand-and-supply partnership so as to jointly promote international energy security.

The Turkmen side would continue to support China on issues concerning China's core interests, enhance bilateral law-enforcement security cooperation and work with China to crush the "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, as well as drug-trafficking and other transnational crimes, he added.

Before the talks, President Hu held a welcoming ceremony for Berdymukhamedov at the Great Hall of People.

Berdymukhamedov, invited by President Hu, is in Beijing to attend the 12th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the SCO that runs from Wednesday and Thursday.

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