From January to August 2023, China-Turkmenistan mutual trade volume reached $7.29bn, up 5.7% year-on-year. The figures were announced by Ambassador Qian Naicheng at a reception in Ashgabat to mark China's National Day. Local Orient quoted the diplomat as saying that "Sino-Turkmen cooperation has a strong internal dynamic".
"Natural gas cooperation is the cornerstone of China-Turkmen relations, Turkmenistan has already exported more than 380bn cubic metres of gas to the PRC."
Experts told Daryo that Turkmenistan is the only one of the five Central Asian states with a positive trade balance with China, thanks to natural gas supplies via Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan since December 2009.
Turkmenistan is the largest supplier of pipeline gas to China. According to China's General Administration of Customs, Turkmenistan shipped $6.63bn worth of natural gas to China in the first eight months, up 5% year-on-year.
Previously, it was reported that the total trade turnover between the two countries in the first half of 2023 was $5.55bn, of which Turkmen gas supplies accounted for $5.05bn.
Eziz Boyarov
Comments (0)