Profile: Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov

BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov will pay a state visit to China from Thursday to Friday at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Berdimuhamedov was born on Sept. 22, 1981, in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat.

Majoring in engineering technology, Berdimuhamedov graduated from the Turkmen Agricultural University in 2001. From 2008 to 2013, he studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia as well as European and international security at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Switzerland.

From 2008 to 2019, he served in the Embassy of Turkmenistan in the Russian Federation, the Permanent Mission of Turkmenistan to the UN Office in Geneva, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, the State Agency for the Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources under the President of Turkmenistan, and the Mejlis, or the Turkmen parliament, among others.

In 2019, he worked as deputy governor and governor of Ahal province.

In 2020, he headed the Ministry of Industry and Construction Production of Turkmenistan.

In February 2021, he held the posts of deputy chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan in charge of architecture, digitalization and innovative technologies, and chairman of the Supreme Control Chamber of Turkmenistan, and was a member of the State Security Council of Turkmenistan.

In July 2021, he worked as deputy chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan in charge of economic and financial issues,

On March 12, 2022, Berdimuhamedov was elected president of Turkmenistan in early elections and sworn in on March 19 of the same year.

The visit is his first visit to China since he took office as president.