In a few weeks, the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly will begin its work in New York. According to the tradition that has been established for a number of years, on the eve of this most important event in international life, Turkmenistan will announce Priority Positions that the country will pursue and defend during the upcoming political season. Such openness, readiness to jointly solve urgent problems of modern world development, which have become a distinctive feature of Turkmen diplomacy, is highly appreciated in international circles, testifies to the ever-growing authority of Turkmenistan as a responsible member of the international community.
During the upcoming 77th session of the General Assembly, which falls on an important anniversary date – the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s membership in the UN, the key focus of the country’s activities will be ensuring and preserving universal lasting and long–term peace, security and sustainable development. In this work, Turkmenistan will rely on broad and multi-format cooperation with the United Nations, as well as the subsidiary bodies of the Organization of which it is a member.
Turkmenistan considers the creation of dialogue platforms on various issues as part of the overall process of multilateral constructive and equal communication of countries to be one of the conditions for achieving universal peace and security.
In this context, noting the importance of the UN General Assembly resolution adopted on 28 July 2022, proclaiming Central Asia a Zone of Peace, Trust and Cooperation, based on the provisions of the above document, Turkmenistan submits to the UN General Assembly a proposal to declare 2025 the “Year of Peace and Trust”.
Assigning an important role to the instruments of preventive diplomacy in ensuring peace and security, and considering that December 2022 marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, Turkmenistan intends to submit to the General Assembly a draft resolution on the role of the UNRCCA, reflecting in this document significant events of recent years, including the declaring zone of peace, trust and cooperation in Central Asia.
Restoring trust and a culture of respectful dialogue is now gaining universal significance as one of the key conditions for a responsible, non-confrontational approach, searching for opportunities for mutual understanding and maintaining a balance of interests when considering certain problematic points.
Promoting the philosophy of trust-based dialogue in international relations, Turkmenistan intends to initiate the development of a draft resolution of the UN General Assembly “Dialogue – a guarantee of peace”. According to Turkmenistan, through the adoption of such a document, the principled and unequivocal commitment of all UN member states to a peaceful, negotiated way of resolving conflict situations, will be confirmed.
Based on the recognition by the UN General Assembly of neutrality as a factor in strengthening universal peace and security, the adopted resolution announcing 12 December as the International Day of Neutrality, Turkmenistan will continue to work actively with partners to expand the number of participants in the Group of Friends of Neutrality in the name of Peace, Security and Sustainable development formed at the UN.
Turkmenistan attaches great importance to the use of parliamentary diplomacy tools in strengthening peace and security, including by advocating for increasing the role of women parliamentarians, their active involvement in the development of state decisions in the field of international politics.
The most serious challenge to the entire global security system at present is the food crisis, which is rapidly covering an increasing number of countries and entire regions.
In these circumstances, Turkmenistan stands for urgent and effective measures to overcome the current situation. In order to maintain the stability of the global food market, as well as supporting the efforts of the UN Secretary-General in this direction, it is proposed to hold an International Forum on Food Security in Turkmenistan.
In view of the increasing crisis in the supply of energy resources to world markets, instability in the relations of suppliers, transit countries and consumers, which creates global risks for economic and social development, Turkmenistan intends to refer to the implementation of the provisions of the UN General Assembly resolutions on the reliability and stability of energy supplies to world markets, adopted on the initiative of Turkmenistan in 2008 and 2013.
In this regard, work will continue on the implementation of proposals submitted earlier by Turkmenistan on the establishment of an open-ended International Expert Group to develop modern UN international legal instruments for regulating sustainable and reliable energy transit. During the upcoming session, Turkmenistan will continue active cooperation with partners aimed at full implementation of agreements on the realization of Sustainable Development Goals.
In particular, by supporting multilateral instruments for monitoring the achievement of the SDGs, Turkmenistan will present the Second Voluntary National Review on the Implementation of the SDGs during the High-level Political Forum in 2023.
Work will continue to promote multilateral transport cooperation. Turkmenistan intends to summarize the results of the Global Conferences on Sustainable Transport held in 2016 and 2021, other high-level transport forums held in recent years, including the Ministerial Transport Conference for Landlocked Countries organized in Turkmenistan on 15-16 August 2022.
Turkmenistan will persistently and purposefully seek to highlight the Aral issue as a separate area of the UN’s work. In May 2023, we intend to resume negotiations on a draft UN ESCAP resolution on the creation of a UN Special Program for the Aral Sea Basin, which aims to approve the concept and structure of the future Special Program.
Turkmenistan will renew its proposal to develop global strategies for the development of low-carbon energy under the auspices of the United Nations, in particular, the preparation of an international Roadmap for the development of hydrogen energy. To this end, in preparation for the Ministerial Meeting on Hydrogen Energy in Japan in October 2022, Turkmenistan plans to hold consultations on the above proposals.
Turkmenistan will continue to consolidate the efforts of the international community in combating the spread of infectious diseases, minimizing their socio-economic consequences, and establishing tools for medical diplomacy.
Emphasizing that the World Health Organization (WHO) is the main platform for a multilateral dialogue to develop consolidated responses to common challenges in the field of global health, Turkmenistan supports the global concept of “One Health” developed by WHO and will promote it within the framework of the Roadmap on Supporting Health and Well-being in Central Asia for the period 2022-2025.
During the upcoming session, Turkmenistan will pay special attention to the humanization of international relations, the strategic reversal of the entire global political, economic, social, environmental agenda to the real concerns, aspirations and legitimate interests of people, ensuring their natural rights to life, security, adequate nutrition, access to clean water and clean air, reliable sources of heat and of light, to high-quality and inexpensive education and medical care, etc.
In this context, Turkmenistan will increase cooperation with specialized UN humanitarian structures, based on the acquired experience of cooperation and focusing on the consistent expansion of the humanitarian agenda.
The priority positions of Turkmenistan at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, the international initiatives and proposals put forward are based on the unwavering commitment to the norms of international law, the status of Turkmenistan as a permanently neutral state recognized by the UN. This document is another convincing evidence of the responsibility, openness and determination of Turkmenistan, together with the international community, to do everything necessary to strengthen peace, stability and equitable security on the planet, affirm the humanistic principles and ideals of the UN, and implement the Sustainable Development Goals.
Turkmenistan approached the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, having in its arsenal practical tools and ideological foundations for the upcoming work, its own creative and initiative agenda, clear guidelines and clearly goals and objectives formulated by the head of state. ///Ministry of foreign affairs of Turkmenistan, 22 August 2022