Yesterday, September 19, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov delivered a speech at the plenary meeting of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly. The publication "Turkmenistan: Golden Age" quotes the full speech of the President:
Dear heads and members of delegations, ladies and gentlemen!
First of all, let me congratulate you on the opening of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly and wish you fruitful work.
I also congratulate Ambassador Dennis Francis on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly and offer my words of support and encouragement in his forthcoming mission during this critical period.
It is that sense of the highest responsibility that should unite all 193 member countries of our Organization today.
Each of them, irrespective of geographical location, population, size of economy, socio-political model, is called upon and capable of making an important contribution to the challenges facing the Community of Nations.
For a variety of reasons, the current world is facing a number of very serious challenges. While their manifestations vary, all of them have a greater or lesser impact on the course of inter-State relations and often negatively affect the implementation of agreed development plans and programs in key areas of the global agenda. This, in turn, could lead to the erosion of the fundamental foundations of universal security as the basis for UN activities. This, of course, cannot be allowed to happen.
On this basis, for many years Turkmenistan has been firmly and persistently defending the principle of the indivisibility of security, its integrity and the inalienability of its various aspects from each other. We are convinced that military and political security cannot be considered in isolation from economic, environmental, technological, energy, transportation, food, biological and information security. None of these areas can be secondary or irrelevant, and their solution cannot be postponed to a later date.
I believe that the main task of the United Nations is to ensure just such an integral approach to the problem of security, to mobilize the experience, competencies, ideas and initiatives available to Member States in a constructive manner, to move away from short-term benefits and advantages in the name of achieving truly momentous goals.
One that will ensure lasting peace, security and development for the long term.
This can only be achieved jointly and with the decisive role of the United Nations. Against the background of discussions on the role of the UN in the modern world and proposals for its reform, the fact remains unchanged and obvious - there is no alternative to the UN. As it has done for all the past decades since its foundation, the UN is today the only universal and legitimate organization responsible for maintaining peace and ensuring universal and comprehensive security and the sustainability of the modern architecture of international relations. This is the principled position of Turkmenistan.
Therefore, it is necessary to consistently and persistently use the potential of the World Organization, its political and diplomatic tools and moral authority in order to give a balanced, non-ideological assessment of current events and trends, overcome mistrust and confrontation in world politics and try to identify prospects for compromise and mutual consideration of interests.
That can be done only under the auspices of the United Nations, in open and honest dialogue. We realize that such communication will not be easy to achieve. Nevertheless, it is necessary.
In that connection, Turkmenistan proposes to start discussing the possibilities of developing a global security strategy based on the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and universally recognized norms of international law, taking into account current realities and trends in world development.
Such a Strategy, in our opinion, should reflect the presence, along with the traditional ones, of new risk factors that have recently emerged.
We also consider it necessary to include in it a number of UN activities, in particular:
- Preventive diplomacy as a tool for conflict prevention and neutralization;
- utilizing the potential of neutrality for peaceful, political and diplomatic settlement of disputes and contradictions;
- restoring a culture of trusting dialog based on the UN General Assembly's decisions to proclaim 2021 as the International Year of Peace and Trust and 2023 as the "International Year of Dialogue as a Guarantee of Peace". Time has confirmed the relevance of these Resolutions for the present moment.
In order to achieve universal and comprehensive security, Turkmenistan proceeds from the need to give the UN activities a distinct regional context.
We believe that this approach is intended to bring due specificity to the joint work, increase its functionality and efficiency.
I am convinced that the time has come to launch an inclusive, full-scale and systematic Central Asia-UN dialog. Turkmenistan respectfully invites its partners to start it.
In this connection, our country is taking the initiative to establish, under the auspices of the United Nations, the format of the Conference on Security in Central Asia and its Bordering Zones. The purpose of the Conference is to develop approaches and decisions aimed at bringing together and synchronizing the efforts of the countries of Central Asia and the international community, international organizations, financial and economic institutions to ensure the sustainable, conflict-free development of the region.
We express our readiness to hold the first Meeting in Ashgabat in 2024.
Dear participants!
Among the key areas of UN activity for the coming years, Turkmenistan considers the solution of urgent climatic and environmental problems. Among them, we emphasize issues related to global commitments on methane.
I must say that with the accession to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, our country adopted a number of relevant national programs. National activities are being carried out at a priority pace in order to reduce and eradicate the negative consequences of methane emissions into the atmosphere. First of all, we are talking about a phased transition to the introduction and use of modern environmentally friendly and resource-saving technologies, especially in the areas of energy, industry and transportation.
At the same time, we welcome the efforts of the world community to implement the Global Commitment on Methane.
And of course, we count here on substantive cooperation and targeted assistance from the specialized structures of the UN, member countries of the Organization and other interested partners. In this context, Turkmenistan has recently approved a Roadmap for the development of international cooperation aimed at studying the issue of Turkmenistan's accession to the Global Commitment on Methane. We will soon send this document to the Secretariat of the Organization.
In general, I believe that the time has come here at the UN to pay closer and more effective attention to environmental problems in Central Asia, to overcome a certain inertia in their consideration and to start targeted and concrete measures to form a holistic environmental strategy of the UN with regard to the region with a population of almost 80 million people, occupying vast areas, possessing unique natural resources and biodiversity and at the same time being in the zone of serious environmental risks.
As an important step in adopting a strategic approach to environmental problems in Central Asia, Turkmenistan is proposing the establishment of a specialized structure - the Regional Centre for Climate Change Technologies in Central Asia, which would work on climate issues in a substantive and systematic manner. We are ready to provide organizational and technical conditions for the functioning of such a Centre in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.
Central Asia is also a region directly adjacent to the Caspian Sea. Everyone knows the importance of this water body with its unique natural complex in the context of the planetary environmental agenda.
As a result of many years of vigorous and respectful cooperation, the littoral countries have developed common key principles of policy in the Caspian Sea, including the adoption of the main document - the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. Last summer, at the Sixth Caspian Summit in Turkmenistan, all participants firmly confirmed their readiness for close cooperation on environmental issues. I believe that this opens up good opportunities for a broad and systematic interaction of the littoral states with the UN.
In this connection, Turkmenistan proposes the establishment of the Caspian Environmental Initiative, which will be designed to become an international platform for substantive and professional cooperation on a wide range of issues related to environmental protection of the Caspian Sea, the preservation of its biological resources and the resolution of a number of pressing environmental problems.
We believe that the implementation of this initiative should be carried out in close cooperation with the UN, its agencies, institutions and agencies.
Dear participants!
As a responsible member state of the UN, Turkmenistan clearly formulates and implements its approaches and actions, identifying priorities, in which our country's contribution would be tangible and really serve for the benefit of global goals and contribute to their early achievement.
Among such priorities, we highlight the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the field of transport.
As you know, Turkmenistan has initiated the creation of effective international platforms for dialog on this most important area. Let me mention the First UN Global Conference on Sustainable Transport successfully held in Ashgabat in 2016, as well as the International Meeting of Ministers of Transport of Landlocked Developing Countries organized in cooperation with the UN in Turkmenistan last summer.
We are proud that Turkmenistan's dedicated work has been marked by the adoption by the General Assembly of six resolutions in the field of transport initiated by Turkmenistan in recent years alone.
Among the latest is the resolution adopted in May this year on "World Sustainable Transport Day". We thank all Member States for their unanimous support for the document.
In that connection, based on the provisions of the resolution, Turkmenistan proposes to convene a high-level meeting on the occasion of World Sustainable Transport Day within the framework of the current session. We look forward to the assistance of the relevant United Nations bodies in organizing this event in New York.
The most important direction of Turkmenistan's activities in the implementation of the SDGs is the maximum assistance of the UN in solving the food problem. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with other unfavorable factors, has exposed the vulnerability of those states where this problem is not solved, where the population does not receive adequate nutrition.
It is necessary to be united, principled and resolute in addressing issues related to access of states and regions to food resources, guarantees of adequate nutrition as an inalienable right of any human being, a key factor of health and normal physical development, especially for children.
It is obvious that breakthrough solutions are needed here, new approaches that overcome political, ideological and opportunistic barriers.
On that basis, Turkmenistan is taking the initiative to convene a major international forum on food security under the auspices of the United Nations, in cooperation with the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund.
We express our readiness to provide conditions for holding such an event in the capital of Turkmenistan within the agreed timeframe.
Dear participants, distinguished chapters and members of delegations!
Next year, Turkmenistan and far beyond its borders, including the United Nations, will celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding son of the Turkmen people - poet, thinker, philosopher and public figure Makhtumkuli Fraghi.
All cultural mankind pays tribute to the memory and respect to the great humanist, who made a great original contribution not only to world literature, but in general to the development of civilization of the East, and the whole world.
And I would like to conclude my speech with the words from Makhtumkuli's poem called "Address to Mankind". In it, the poet addresses people - his contemporaries and descendants - with such life-affirming lines:
"Whether a man is asleep or awake, he will be deeply faithful to his plans."
Let loyalty to creative ideas, ideals of peace, justice and progress be the main and clear guideline in our joint work.
Photo: gadebate.un.org
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