Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a phone conversation with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov on Sunday, with both sides calling for solidarity and cooperation in global efforts against COVID-19 and stop of politicizing the pandemic.

China has always highly valued the development of friendly relations with Turkmenistan and treated Turkmenistan as a good friend, a good brother and a good partner, Wang said.

Stressing that Chinese President Xi Jinping attaches importance to establishing trust and friendship with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Wang said the two heads of state have kept close contact and provided strategic guidance to the development of the bilateral ties.

Despite the changing international and regional situation, China will not change its policy of developing friendly relations with Turkmenistan, Wang said.

"We are willing to work with the Turkmen side to make our relationship a model of treating each other on an equal footing, mutual respect and mutual benefit," Wang added.

In the conversation, Wang also expressed appreciation over Turkmenistan's support for China in combating the pandemic and commended the Central Asian country's strict prevention and control measures.

The COVID-19 pandemic once again proves that the whole world is a community with shared future and common interests, and solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapons to defeat the disease, Wang said.

It is a regret, Wang said, that some countries have been politicizing the pandemic, slandering and stigmatizing China and even making lies for their own benefits.

Their words and deeds erode the bottom line of morality and will eventually be rejected by the whole international community, Wang said.

Wang pointed out that the Chinese side would like to continue exchanges with Turkmenistan in flexible and diverse forms to push forward their cooperation, and minimize the impact of the pandemic on such cooperation.

The two sides should sign as soon as possible cooperation documents to align the initiative of jointly building the Belt and Road with Turkmenistan's development strategy to revive the Silk Road, and continue to maintain and develop long-term, stable and strategic cooperation on such traditional fields as natural gas, he said.

The two sides should also tap the potential, expand cooperation in the medical and health field, and constantly enrich the connotation of their relations, Wang said.

China is willing to strengthen communication and collaboration with Turkmenistan on international affairs, firmly support each other, and safeguard the common interests of both sides as developing countries and emerging markets, he said.

For his part, Meredov said that Turkmenistan highly values the high level of the Turkmenistan-China strategic partnership.

The two sides maintain close collaboration in the political and diplomatic domains, and share with each other their firm support in international affairs, he said.

The Turkmen side highly appreciates the tremendous efforts and major achievements made by the Chinese government in fighting the epidemic, and thanks the Chinese side for taking proper care of the Turkmen citizens in China, Meredov said.

The Turkmen side believes that epidemics should under no circumstance be politicized as such an attempt is not conducive to international anti-epidemic cooperation, he said.

Meredov said that Turkmenistan has always been committed to strengthening traditional friendly relations with China, and is willing to maintain contact at the top level and between various departments of the two countries in a flexible manner, and promote exchanges and cooperation in various fields.

The Turkmen side believes that the Hong Kong and Xinjiang issues are purely China's internal affairs, and according to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, no country has the right to interfere, he added.

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