Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday met with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Xi first hailed the bilateral ties between China and Turkmenistan. Despite the changes in the international circumstances, he said China will always be a reliable friend and partner for Turkmenistan and is willing to work with the country to deepen all-round mutually beneficial cooperation.

Xi stressed that strategic cooperation in the field of natural gas has effectively promoted the economic and social development of both countries, and China is ready to work with the Turkmen side on long-term planning and to explore more opportunities and elevate the natural gas cooperation to a new level.

The two countries should speed up creating a link between China's Belt and Road Initiative and Turkmenistan's development strategy to revive the Great Silk Road, Xi said.

He also said China is ready to speed up building a "Luban Workshop" as part of the efforts to help the Central Asian country train highly skilled personnel.

Speaking of the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi said China is willing to continue to strengthen vaccine cooperation with Turkmenistan.

In his remarks, Berdymukhamedov hailed the grand opening ceremony of Beijing 2022.

He said the two countries are each other's most reliable and trustworthy friends and partners.

The economic ties especially in the fields of oil and natural gas have grown rapidly in recent years on the basis of mutual benefit, equality and mutual trust, Berdymukhamedov said, adding that such cooperation has brought benefits for people in both countries.

Turkmenistan is willing to work with China to advance the construction of the Central Asia-China gas pipeline (Line D) and expand cooperation in various fields in order to elevate the bilateral relations to a higher level, he added.