President Hu inaugurates Turkmen pipeline
- Source: Global Times
- [10:50 December 15 2009]
- Comments
Chinese President Hu Jintao, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Uzbek President Islam Karimov turn on the flow of natural gas together in the gas plant on the right bank of the Amu Darya River, Turkmenistan, on Dec. 14, 2009. The four leader attended the inauguration ceremony of the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline here on Monday. (Xinhua photo)
Chinese President Hu Jintao unveiled Monday a landmark pipeline to transport Turkmen natural gas to China during the second day of his working visit to the country.
Hu, together with Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, president of Turkmenistan, Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan, and Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan, turned a symbolic wheel at a refinery in Samandepe in Turkmenistan's vast Karakum desert during a ceremony that opened the pipeline to start the first gas flowing.
"China is positive about our cooperation and the opening of this gas pipeline is another platform for collaboration and cooperation between our friendly nations," Hu told reporters.
The 7,000-kilometer gas pipeline first runs for 1,800 kilometers in Central Asia – snaking through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan – before linking up with a further 5,000-plus kilometers of pipeline in China's far-west Xinjiang region.
The China National Petroleum Corp will eventually import up to 40 billion cubic meters of gas a year through the pipeline when it reaches full capacity in 2012-2013.
"Today's launch of the pipeline will become a new chronicle in the relations of our countries and will stand as a golden page" in their history, Berdymukhamedov told reporters.
Karimov, meanwhile, said China was one of the most reliable and trustworthy friends of Uzbekistan, adding that his country would adhere to the one-China policy and firmly support China's strike against the "three evil forces," "Taiwan independence" and "Tibet independence."
