BEIJING, May 13 -- Top Chinese legislator Zhang Dejiang on Tuesday met with visiting Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, calling for stronger legislative collaboration.

Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, reviewed the sound development of China-Turkmenistan relations since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in 1992.

He said bilateral relations had entered a new stage thanks to Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Turkmenistan last year, which upgraded bilateral relations to a strategic partnership, and Berdymukhamedov's ongoing visit to China.

As it is important for the NPC and the Turkmen National Assembly to step up exchanges and cooperation, both sides should implement consensus forged by the presidents, promote collaboration in trade and the economy, energy and security, increase people-to-people exchanges, ratify bilateral legal documents and strengthen legal guarantees for cooperation so as to contribute more to bilateral relations, Zhang said.

Berdymukhamedov underscored his support for exchanges between the two legislative bodies and pledged to boost exchanges on legislative work and work for economic and social development of the two countries.

Berdymukhamedov, who arrived on Sunday, is paying a three-day state visit to Beijing as a guest of Xi.

On Monday, Xi and Berdymukhamedov signed a number of deals, including an agreement of China-Turkmenistan cooperation, a joint declaration on developing and deepening the bilateral strategic partnership and development plans for 2014-2018.