“Both sides should utilise their complementary strengths, explore the potential for cooperation, and continue to deepen and expand cooperation in key areas,” said Ding, a member of the ruling Communist Party’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee.

He said the two sides should focus on increasing economic, trade and investment cooperation, and continue to deepen cooperation on natural gas.

The vice-premier’s trip to Central Asia – a region where Russia has traditionally held sway – is part of China’s efforts to step up ties with its neighbours in the region. Beijing sees Central Asia as crucial to the country’s energy security as well as the social stability of its western borders, particularly in the Xinjiang region that neighbours Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It also comes as China is facing geopolitical pressure over Russia’s war in Ukraine and from the US-led alliance in the Indo-Pacific region.

In May, President Xi Jinping hosted the leaders of the five Central Asian countries in Xian at the first China-Central Asia Summit, with Beijing announcing development support worth 26 billion yuan (US$3.7 billion).

At the summit, Xi also pledged to speed up construction of a Central Asian natural gas pipeline. The project – which will source natural gas from Turkmenistan – started in 2014 but has been delayed by price negotiations and the technical difficulties of laying a pipeline system through another three Central Asian nations.

On Wednesday, China and Turkmenistan also agreed to “continue to expand security cooperation, further deepen counterterrorism cooperation and jointly combat the ‘three forces’,” according to a Chinese statement. Beijing often uses “three forces” to refer to terrorism, separatism and religious extremism in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Central Asia.

Natural gas has been high on the agenda for China in its bilateral ties with Turkmenistan. The world’s second-largest economy – and second most-populous country – is looking to diversify its energy supply chains as it tries to meet ambitious climate change goals and ensure the nation’s energy security.

Turkmenistan – a landlocked former Soviet state – has an estimated 265 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves and is China’s top natural gas supplier. It has pumped 30 per cent of its gas to China through pipelines in the region since 2009.

Wednesday’s meeting in Turkmenistan was the sixth held under the bilateral cooperation commitment, which is co-chaired by vice-premiers of the two countries. The first gathering was in 2010.

Earlier this week, Ding – a close aide of Xi and the top decision maker on climate change policy – also co-chaired a China-Kazakhstan cooperation meeting in Astana.

Ding met top Kazakh leaders including President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and the two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation on everything from trade, energy, transport and logistics to science, culture, environmental protection, tourism and water management.