Reports noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping is on a tour of Central Asia on the invitation of the Presidents of all the five Central Asian countries from the September 3-13, 2013. 1 Xi Jinping began his tour of Central Asia at Turkmenistan by inaugurating the Galkynysh gas field with the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. It would be worth noting that China, the biggest trading partner of Turkmenistan, has managed to get into a contract with Türkmengaz, the national gas company of Turkmenistan, which will allow them to get 25 billion cubic metres of gas every year in addition to the 40 billion cubic metres of gas which China was already receiving. 2

In another development, according to reports, a visiting French parliamentary delegation, headed by Senator André Dulait, chairman of the “France-Central Asia” friendship group in the French Senate, met with the Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Ilgizar Sabirov. During the talks it was noted that cooperation between Uzbekistan and France has been consistently on the rise in all directions, in particular, in parliamentary sphere. The parties exchanged views on the issues of interaction between legislative bodies of the two countries at the meeting. As was noted, the parliamentary cooperation plays a main role in strengthening legal basis of bilateral relations. 3

• 1. “Kyrgyzstan waits in anticipation for the visit of Xi Jingping”, Xinhuanet September 9, 2013 at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-09/09/c_132705124.htm
  Kabar September 7, 2013 at http://kabar.kg/eng/economics/full/8135
• 2. “ Xi JInping’s visit to four Central Asian countries starting with Turkmenistan”, China.org.cn, September 10, 2013 at http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2013-09/10/content_29983779.htm
• 3. “Chairman of the Senate of the Uzbekistan Parliament meets French Parliamentary delegation”, Uzbekistan National News Agency, September 6, 2013 at http://uza.uz/en/politics/3750/