Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded his state visit to Turkmenistan on Wednesday and left for the eighth Leaders' Summit of the Group of Twenty (G20) to be held in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

Turkmenistan is the first stop of Xi's four-nation Central Asian tour, which will also take him to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

During his two-day stay in the country, Xi held talks with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. The two leaders jointly declared to lift bilateral ties to a strategic partnership.

Xi and Berdymukhamedov also attended the completion ceremony of the first-phase construction of the Galkynysh Gas Field in Mary.

Xi's visit is widely viewed as a move to promote China's cooperation with Turkmenistan and opens a new chapter in China's ties with the Central Asian country.

Following the G20 summit, the Chinese president will also attend the 13th meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kyrgyzstan.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2013)