Irina Imamkulieva
During a telephone conversation on August 5, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev invited President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov to take part in the sixth Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia, as well as the first Summit of the “Central Asia + Japan” Dialogue, which will be held in Astana. Having respectfully accepted the invitation, the head of the Turkmen state expressed his conviction that the initiatives announced at these meetings will serve to identify new prospects for interaction in the region, and wished the success of these events.
Holding consultative meetings of the heads of state of Central Asia is an already established and well-proven format for strategic dialogue. And here it should be noted that, according to general recognition, recorded in the Joint Statement of the Heads of State following the Second Consultative Meeting in November 2019 in Tashkent, this dialogue began back in 1998, when a meeting of the heads of state of Central Asia took place on January 2 in Ashgabat. This format confirms the principled choice of all five states – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to increase mutually beneficial cooperation based on the principles of good neighborliness.
The success of the Summit Consultative Meetings lies in the fact that they are an effective mechanism for determining current priorities for interaction based on common regional interests. At the same time, each country comes up with its own proposals and initiatives that reflect the heads of state’s vision of the potential and prospects for interaction for the comprehensive development of the region and strengthening its international subjectivity in the new geopolitical conditions. The relevance of this agenda is related to the role and place of Central Asia in the system of international relations and world economic relations, which is determined by the geostrategic position of the region, the presence of enormous human, resource, raw material and production potential.
Remaining committed to the historically established ties and bonds of friendship with the fraternal peoples of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan strives to fully promote an equal, trusting dialogue with the countries of the region in all directions, both in bilateral and multilateral formats. At the same time, Turkmenistan is consistent in its initiatives and practical actions aimed at promoting regional dialogue.
In such an area as regional security, Turkmenistan considers the preservation of stability, lasting and long-term peace to be the key condition. A mechanism for political consultations at the level of the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been created and is working in this area. Turkmenistan proposed to support this format of consultations with closer and coordinated actions of the five countries in the UN and the OSCE so that on issues of truly regional importance, delegations have clear guidelines, coordinated positions and purposefully defend them, relying on each other’s support and reasonably involving like-minded people from other states. In this regard, it is worth noting the special significance of the Resolution adopted at the initiative of our country by the UN General Assembly in July 2022, declaring Central Asia a zone of peace, trust and cooperation.
Taking into account the new realities and challenges that the President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov spoke about in his speech at the meeting in Cholpon-Ata, he made a proposal to intensify and strengthen political and diplomatic interaction and instruct foreign ministries to develop a Roadmap on the entire spectrum of the security agenda for the next two years, with the participation of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia. Thus, Turkmenistan proposed its vision of the use of preventive diplomacy mechanisms in the region, in particular, through the activities of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia. To effectively protect the information space in the region, the President of Turkmenistan proposed strengthening professional ties between state information structures of the five countries.
Continuing work in this direction, the President of Turkmenistan at the Consultative Meeting in Dushanbe emphasized that during the 78th session of the General Assembly he intends to propose a number of initiatives, including those directly related to the development of the region. In particular, to create, under the auspices of the UN, a Dialogue on Security and Cooperation in Central Asia to develop approaches and solutions aimed at bringing closer and synchronizing the efforts of the Central Asian countries in ensuring sustainable, conflict-free development of the region; begin consultations with relevant UN agencies to determine the optimal format and structure of the UN Special Program for the Aral Sea Basin; establish a specialized structure – the Regional Center for Technologies Related to Climate Change in Central Asia. Turkmenistan always considers providing support to stabilization processes in Afghanistan to be the most important part of cooperation in the field of regional security. Consistently working in this direction, our country, as you know, has initiated a number of major regional projects, some of which have already been successfully completed.
In its regional cooperation strategy, Turkmenistan also consistently adheres to the line of increasing the economic potential of the region, its competitiveness on the world stage and assigns an important role to the implementation of regional energy, transport, communications and trade projects.
Energy is a key component of the economy of the Central Asian states. Conceptually, the heads of state are united in their views on the configuration and prospects of partnership in this area. This is confirmed by the support of the states of the region for the UN General Assembly Resolutions, initiated by Turkmenistan, on the reliability and stability of energy supplies as the most important factor in economic growth.
Turkmenistan proceeds from the fact that partnership in this area must be carried out through the active and full-fledged participation of all Central Asian states, and it should be aimed at creating a powerful energy infrastructure both within the region and along its external perimeter. At the same time, our country constantly confirms its readiness to significantly increase the volume of supplies of its natural gas and electricity to the countries of Central Asia or through their territories to foreign markets on mutually beneficial terms. In this regard, at the fifth Consultative Meeting in Dushanbe, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov proposed creating a new form of five-way interaction – the Energy Dialogue of Central Asian Countries.
The transport sector remains an important vector of partnership between Central Asian states. Emphasizing that Central Asia, due to its geostrategic location, is destined to become the most important transport and logistics link on the continent, Turkmenistan considers it important to direct the efforts of countries to create a powerful and modern infrastructure that would ensure the unification of transport systems of Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region. To this end, Turkmenistan proposes to draw up specific plans for the formation of an integrated transport system for the countries of Central Asia, jointly build trans-regional facilities, use the capacities of the Turkmenbashi International Sea Port in the interests of all Central Asian countries, create a five-party working group at the government level to study the possibilities of forming new transport and communication routes. In particular, Turkmenistan is ready to work together to develop the transport route Central Asia–Caspian–Black Sea and Central Asia–Persian Gulf.
Today, through joint efforts, favorable conditions are gradually being created for freight and passenger traffic between the countries of Central Asia, as well as with other regions of the Eurasian continent. In development of this process, Turkmenistan proposed to launch a Central Asian transport and logistics platform, which will contribute to the creation of transport hubs in the region, the formation of new and increased efficiency of existing transit corridors, optimization and harmonization of customs, migration and other procedures along international transport routes passing through the territories of five states .
It is also in the common interests of the five countries to do everything possible so that the region meets modern requirements of economic competition and becomes an integral part of world economic processes as an equal and effective partner. In order to give regional economic cooperation a targeted and systematic character, Turkmenistan proposed the creation of a five-party Business Council, which could take on the functions of forming a unified strategy in priority areas of economic partnership, as well as develop specific proposals on the investment agenda for cooperation with foreign business circles.
Turkmenistan believes that today trade, economic and investment cooperation between the states of Central Asia should acquire a strategic orientation, namely, turning it into one of the foundations for the formation of a new geo-economic landscape of Eurasia.
Another important issue is Central Asian production cooperation. Emphasizing that combining natural resources, industrial and technological potential, creating partnership production lines, “integration corridors” require specific and effective measures, at the fifth Consultative Meeting, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov proposed to consider the issue of creating a Central Asian Chamber of Commerce. “The meaning and purpose of its work is to coordinate our joint steps in the development of trade; ensuring the commercial interests of all potential economic entities of the Central Asian market; attracting investments for the implementation of large regional projects.”
In conditions when the efficiency and competitiveness of states are determined by the development of high technologies and innovations, partnership in the field of innovative development and high technologies is extremely relevant. In this regard, Turkmenistan proposed creating a Council of Central Asian Countries on New Technologies, which would coordinate joint efforts in this direction.
In general, all proposals of Turkmenistan are put forward based on trends in the global economic space and are designed to give regional economic cooperation a targeted and systematic character.
Ensuring sustainable development of Central Asia and improving the quality of life of the region’s population are directly related to solving environmental problems, in particular, improving the situation in the Aral Sea region. In this regard, Turkmenistan is consistently promoting its initiative to develop a UN Special Program for the Aral Sea Basin and highlight the Aral issue as a separate area of activity of the United Nations. The basis for this is the Resolution of the UN General Assembly “Cooperation between the United Nations and the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea” adopted at the initiative of our country.
Turkmenistan also considers coordination of efforts to conserve and use water resources to be among the main issues of regional cooperation. Here, our country’s position is well known: a unified strategy of action for the long term must be implemented on the basis of generally recognized norms of international law, mutual respect and consideration of the interests of all states in the region and with the participation of specialized international organizations. Ensuring equal and fair access to water resources is the responsibility of every responsible state.
The most important factors in the rapprochement and establishment of fraternal relations between the peoples of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan over the centuries have been the common history, spiritual values and cultural traditions. This is a huge asset that today largely strengthens interstate relations. To strengthen humanitarian contacts, Turkmenistan proposed launching a regional cultural dialogue, calling it the Central Asian Cultural Dialogue Forum. Its task is to establish a comprehensive, multifaceted interaction between the cultural communities of fraternal countries, popularize the rich spiritual and historical heritage of the peoples of Central Asia, modern achievements in the field of literature, art, cinema, and encourage broad youth contacts. It is also important, in the opinion of our country, to strengthen and intensify joint work at UNESCO, including on preserving the historical heritage of the peoples of Central Asia, highlighting this topic as a separate area of activity of the delegations of the states of the region to the UN and instructing the foreign ministries to develop a joint action plan for the countries of Central Asia on working with the UNESCO Secretariat.
Interstate regional integration is not a quick, consistent and step-by-step process. The constant task of the Consultative Meetings of Heads of State is to harmonize the interests of countries, select certain goals at each stage, and give impetus to the further deepening of integration processes.
During a telephone conversation between the Presidents of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan on August 5, the relevance of consolidating efforts in a regional format in the face of new challenges was stated. At the same time, Turkmenistan confirmed its firm focus on further strengthening fraternal and good neighborly relations with all states of the region. /// nCa, 8 August 2024 (originally published by Neutral Turkmenistan)