Chinese foreign minister meets Turkmen deputy prime minister

CHENGDU, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday met with Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov in the city of Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Noting that Turkmenistan is China's good brother and partner, Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the two sides should continue the traditional friendship, implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, firmly support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests, explore new ideas in expanding all-around mutually beneficial cooperation, make new breakthroughs in promoting energy cooperation, and take new steps in strengthening people-to-people exchanges.

China is willing to further expand the scale of trade and investment cooperation with Turkmenistan and will encourage more Chinese-funded enterprises to invest in Turkmenistan, Wang said.

Meredov, who is here to attend the fifth China-Central Asia Foreign Ministers' Meeting, said Turkmenistan adheres to permanent friendship with China and is willing to keep close high-level exchanges with China, give full play to the role of the Turkmenistan-China Cooperation Committee and promote mutually beneficial cooperation on the flagship project of natural gas trade between the two sides.