PRIORITY POSITIONS OF TURKMENISTAN AT THE 77TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

19 Aug

Preamble

Turkmenistan views the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly from the perspective of insistent and immediate use of the potentials of the world community, the levers of constructive influence of the United Nations to reduce the degree of global and regional tension, search for channels of dialogue as the only acceptable way to resolve emerging conflicts and contradictions, create prerequisites for establishing responsible joint approaches to the problems of post-pandemic development and the restoration of degraded economic and logistical ties.

Our country hopes that during the forthcoming session we will witness the full-fledged continuation of the process of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular the following key components such as environment, climate change, and development of low carbon energy production, health care, food and energy security.

For Turkmenistan, the work of the 77th session of the General Assembly coincides with a very important jubilee date – the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s membership in the United Nations. In this regard, Turkmenistan reaffirms its line of strategic partnership with the World Organization, the conviction that there is no alternative to the United Nations as the only world structure with universal legitimacy, Turkmenistan will continue its efforts to enhance and strengthen the role of the United Nations in the world and reaffirming recognized international law rules and United Nations Charter as the conceptual political and international basis for international relations.

Keeping this in mind Turkmenistan intends to continue active cooperation with the following subsidiary bodies of the United Nations of which the country is a member:

- United Nations Commission on Population and Development;
- United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development;
- Commission for Social Development;
- Commission on Narcotic Drugs;
- United Nations Commission on International Trade Law;
- Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat);
- Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women).

Peace and Security

Turkmenistan views the preservation and maintenance of firm and long-lasting peace and security as the key issue of modern international policy. Turkmenistan believes that one of the key conditions for achieving this goal is the establishment of dialogue platforms on different issues as a part of the general process of multilateral constructive and equal communication among states.

In this context, noting the importance of the United Nations General Assembly resolution adopted on July 28, 2022, declaring «Zone of Peace, Trust and Cooperation of Central Asia», based on the provisions of the above document, Turkmenistan will submit to the United Nations General Assembly a proposal to declare the year 2025 as the «Year of Peace and Trust».

We also intend to renew the previously announced initiative to create a permanent Forum on security, peace and development in Central Asia.

We assign an important role in ensuring peace and security as an instrument of preventive diplomacy. Taking into account that December 2022 marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA), we intend to submit to the General Assembly a draft resolution on the role of the Center, highlighting its significant events of recent years, including the declaration of a 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, in the search for finding ways for mutual understanding and maintaining a balance of interests when considering any contentious issues.

While promoting the philosophy of trustful dialogue in international relations we intend to initiate the creation of the United Nations draft resolution entitled «Dialogue as the guarantee of peace».

We are convinced that the adoption of such a document will reaffirm the principled and unambiguous adherence of all United Nations member states to the peaceful way of resolving conflict situations on the basis of negotiations no matter how complex they may be.

Based on the recognition by the United Nations General Assembly of neutrality as a factor in strengthening universal peace and security, the adoption of the resolution on the proclamation of December 12, as the International Day of Neutrality, Turkmenistan will continue to actively work with partners to expand the number of members of the Group of Friends of Neutrality for peace, security, and development, created within the framework of the United Nations.

In this connection, we plan to organize in September 2022 on the sidelines of the High-level week of the 77th session of the General Assembly a Ministerial level meeting of the Group of Friends for approving its constituent documents, including the procedures and order of work.

Turkmenistan attaches importance to the use of parliamentarian diplomacy tools in strengthening peace and security, by advocating an increase in the role of women parliamentarians and their active involvement in the development of state decisions in the field of international politics.

To this end, at the initiative of the Dialogue of Women of Central Asian states and in cooperation with the UN-Women we intend to establish at the United Nations headquarters an International forum of women-parliamentarians, the final documents of this will serve as the basis for work on a draft resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on the role of women parliamentarians in strengthening peace, security and development.

At present, the entire system of global security faces the most serious challenge - the food crisis which is rapidly engulfing an ever-growing number of countries and entire regions.
Under these conditions, it is necessary to take immediate and effective measures to overcome the emerging situation. With a view to maintaining stability of the global food market as well as supporting the UN Secretary General’s efforts we propose 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 and the instability in the relations of suppliers, transit countries and consumers which creates global risks for economic and social development, we intend to emphasize the need to implement the provisions of the United Nations resolutions on the reliability and stability of energy supplies to the world markets that were adopted at the initiative of Turkmenistan in 2008 and 2013. In this connection, we will continue our work on the implementation of the proposals previously submitted by Turkmenistan on the establishment of an open-ended International group of experts for the purpose of elaborating of modern United Nations international legal tools aimed at regulating stable and reliable energy transit.

Sustainable development

At the forthcoming UNGA session Turkmenistan will continue its active interaction with its partners aimed at the full-fledged execution of agreements on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. We attach especially great importance to further strengthening the coordinating role of the United Nations General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council as well as to the mechanism of regular high-level Political forums on sustainable development and activity on the review of the progress of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In this regard, supporting multilateral instruments for monitoring the achievement of the SDGs, Turkmenistan will present its Second Voluntary National Review on the Implementation of the SDGs during the High-level Political Forum in 2023.

Within the framework of the Political Forum, we also intend to organize jointly with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs a separate Ministerial dialogue dedicated to the SDGs financing issues.

We will continue our work on promoting multilateral transport cooperation. Turkmenistan intends to summarize the results of the 2016 and 2021 Global conferences on sustainable transport and other recent transport forums including the Ministerial transport conference of Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC) held in Turkmenistan on August 15-16, 2022 and submit for the consideration of the General Assembly a draft concept of the United Nations Special international programme on transport development.

In the same vein, Turkmenistan will initiate the development of a draft resolution of the General Assembly «On enhancing the role of LLDCs in the development and strengthening of global transport cooperation» and the creation of a Special Working Group in the United Nations to promote the interests of Landlocked countries in the transport sector.

Based on Turkmenistan's positions on the issues of the adaptation and mitigation of climate change, presented during the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow in November 2021, as well as the positions that were practically considered during multilateral consultations within the framework of the Climate Conference in Bonn in June this year, Turkmenistan is conducting preparatory work for the establishment of the Regional Center for Climate Technologies for Central Asian states in Ashgabat under the Center and the Climate Technology Network (CTCN) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

At the same time, noting Turkmenistan's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) adopted in May 2022 within the framework of fulfilling obligations under the Paris Agreement, Turkmenistan intends to intensify its efforts to implement the goals outlined in this document, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting the «Global Methane Pledge» initiative.

We will persistently and purposefully strive to promote the Aral Sea issues as a separate line of work of the United Nations. On May 2023 we intend to renew the negotiations on the draft resolution of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on the establishment of a Special United Nations programme for the Aral Sea basin that will be aimed at the endorsement of the concept and structure of the future Special Programme. The above document is based on the provisions of the United Nations General Assembly resolution on «Cooperation between the United Nations and the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFSA)» that were adopted in 2018 and 2019.

Turkmenistan will renew its proposal for the creation under the auspices of the United Nations of global strategies on the development of low carbon energy in particular the preparation of an international «Road Map» for the development of hydrogen energy. To this end within the framework of the preparatory work for the Ministerial meeting on hydrogen energy in Japan which will be held in October 2022 we plan to hold consultations on the above-mentioned proposals with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Vienna and Geneva.

We intend to continue our work on the consolidation of international community efforts in the fight against the spread of infectious diseases, minimization of their social and economic consequences and establishment of medical diplomacy tools.

While emphasizing that the World Health Organization (WHO) serves as the main platform of multilateral dialogue for the elaboration of coordinated responses to common challenges in the sphere of global health care we support the global concept of «One Health» elaborated by the WHO and will promote it within the framework of the Road map in support of health care and well-being in Central Asia for the term 2022-2025.

International Humanitarian Cooperation

At the forthcoming session Turkmenistan will devote special attention to the humanization of international relations, strategic shift of the entire political, economic and environmental agenda towards the real issues, aspirations and legitimate interests of people, guaranteeing their natural rights to life, security, adequate food, access to drinking water and clean air, reliable sources of heat and electricity, qualitative and inexpensive education and medical care and so on.

We will continue to make our contribution to the upholding of the supremacy of law at the national and international levels, implementation of regional and global strategies, programmes and plans of action on ensuring human rights and freedoms adopted on the basis of international law documents of the United Nations.

In this context, we will step up our collaboration with specialized United Nations humanitarian structures, based on the acquired experience of cooperation and focusing on the consistent expansion of the humanitarian agenda.

Concluding remarks

The priority positions of Turkmenistan at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, its international initiatives and proposals put forward are based on its unwavering commitment to the norms of international law and the status of Turkmenistan as a permanently neutral state recognized by the United Nations.

Turkmenistan’s approaches to the pressing issues of world politics stem from the need for responsible and consolidated participation of the United Nations member states in their solution, enhancement of principles of equality and respect in international affairs, rejection of legal nihilism, dilution, devaluation or revision of the lofty mission of the United Nations and its momentous importance for mankind.

We call on the Member States of the Organization to responsibly consider modern challenges and formulate appropriate constructive approaches aimed at overcoming them.