Hu Jintao expressed confidence that the commissioning of the pipeline would mark a special milestone in the modern history of friendly and mutually beneficial relations between the two countries and stressed that China would honor the agreements reached earlier and that it was ready to buy Turkmen gas as planned.

It should be recalled that the launch of the gas pipeline is scheduled for December 15, 2009. Earlier, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, countries through which the gas pipeline will be running, were also invited to attend the ceremony. The total length of the route exceeds 7000 km. 188 km of the pipeline will be laid in the territory of Turkmenistan, 530 - in Uzbekistan, 1300 - in Kazakhstan, and more than 4500 km - in China.

In accordance with previous agreements, Turkmenistan will be supplying up to 40 billion cubic meters of gas annually to China within 30 years. At the initial stage, the transit of 13 billion cubic meters of gas will be ensured through the construction of facilities for natural gas cleaning and processing at Samandepe and Altyn Asyr gas fields with the remaining volumes coming from new gas fields.