China’s Hu Jintao was in Turkmenistan on Monday December 14, attending the opening ceremonial of the launch of a natural gas pipeline that runs 1,140 miles across three Central Asia nations to the Chinese border, and into the Chinese region of Xinjiang. Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Turkmen President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, and Uzbekistan President Islom Karimov turned the valve of the pipeline with Hu.
"China gives the highest priority to cooperation between our neighbors and this pipeline is witness to the uninterrupted cooperation that continues to flourish between our nations," Hu said Monday.
The pipeline is the first major export corridor for natural gas out of the region that does not pass through Russia.
Source: China News Service, December 14, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/12-14/2017220.shtml