President Hu Jintao is in Central Asia celebrating the opening of a gas pipeline that run from Turkmenistan through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to Xinjiang. BBC reports:
Mr Hu and Mr Nazarbayev together pressed a symbolic button to open the 1,833km (1,139 mile) section before officials from both countries marked the new relationship with hugs and cheers, the Reuters news agency reported.
Mr Nazarbayev said: “This is a grand construction project that will in time resurrect the ancient Silk Route.”
The pipeline, which begins near a Turkmenistan gas field being developed by the China National Petroleum Corporation concludes in Xinjiang in western China.
It has an estimated capacity of 40bn cubic metres a year and will mean the central Asian countries are less dependent on Russia buying up their supplies.
