China and the Central Asian countries need to expand energy cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Friday.

Xi made the remarks in his keynote address at the China-Central Asia Summit in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

China proposes to build a China-Central Asia energy development partnership, he said.

He called on the two sides to accelerate the construction of Line D of the China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline, expand trade in oil and gas, pursue cooperation throughout the energy industrial chains, and strengthen cooperation on new energy and the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

The gas source of Line D is Fuxing Gas Field in Turkmenistan, which enters China through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, and ends at the terminal station in Wuqia in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The total length of the line is 1,000 kilometers, of which the section outside of China is 840 kilometers, with a designed annual output of 30 billion cubic meters.

Line D is one of the most challenging gas line construction projects in the world, as the line goes through complex terrain and some mountainous regions with high-intensity earthquakes. It is also the first time the China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline has gone through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. 

Lines A, B and C in operation connecting Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and Line D in construction, will closely strengthen the energy cooperation between China and Central Asian countries.

By June 2022, the China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline had delivered more than 400 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China for over 12 years, according to PipeChina West Pipeline Company. As China's first transnational gas pipeline, the pipeline runs from the border of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, passes through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and links up with China's West-to-East Gas Pipeline in Horgos, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.