President Xi leaves for Central Asia visit

President Xi Jinping left Beijing early Tuesday morning for Turkmenistan, the first stop of his four-nation visit to Central Asia.  [Special coverage]

The tour, from Sept 3 to 13, includes State visits to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. He is also scheduled to attend the eighth Leaders' Summit of the Group of Twenty (G20), scheduled in St Petersburg from Sept 5 to 6, as well as the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, on Sept 13.

Turkmenistan is China's key supplier of natural gas. The two sides completed a natural gas pipeline in December 2009, which brings vital energy supplies through China's western region.

The upcoming tour of Central Asia will be Xi's third international trip this year, and the first one to this neighboring region since he took office this March.

It's widely expected that Xi's first official tour here should help clarify the foreign policy of China's new leadership in the region.