On 19 September 2023 in New York, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov addressed 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Here is a slightly paraphrased translation of his speech:
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 post of President of the General Assembly and address words of support and assistance in his upcoming mission during this crucial period.
It is the sense of the highest responsibility that should unite all 193 Member countries of our Organization today.
Each of them, regardless of geographical location, population, economy, socio-political model, is designed and able to make an important contribution to solving the problems facing the Community of Nations.
For many reasons, the current world is facing a number of serious challenges, With the difference in their manifestations, all of them to a greater or lesser extent affect the course of interstate relations, and often hinder the implementation of development plans and programs in key areas of the global agenda. This could erode the fundamental foundations of universal security, which is the basis of the UN’s activities. This must not be allowed.
Based on this, Turkmenistan has for many years firmly and persistently defended the principle of the indivisibility of security, its integrity, and the inseparability of its various aspects from each other. We are convinced that military and political security cannot be considered in isolation from economic, environmental, man-made, energy, transport, food, biological, and information security. None of these directions can be secondary or irrelevant, and their solution can be postponed to a later date.
I believe that the main task of the UN is to provide exactly such an integral approach to the security problem, to mobilize the experience, competencies, ideas and initiatives available to Member states in a creative way, to move away from momentary benefits and advantages in order to achieve truly fateful goals.
Those that will ensure lasting peace, security and development for the long term.
This can only be achieved together and with the decisive role of the United Nations. Against the background of discussions about the role of the UN in the modern world, proposals for its reform remain unchanged and obvious – there is no alternative to the UN. Like 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, the stability 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-ideologized assessment of the events and trends taking place, overcome distrust and confrontational intensity in world politics and try to identify prospects for compromise and mutual consideration of interests.
This can be done only under the auspices of the United Nations, in an open and honest dialogue. We are aware that it will not be easy to achieve such communication. Nevertheless, it is necessary.
In this context, Turkmenistan proposes to start discussing the possibilities of elaborating a Global Security Strategy based on the principles of the United Nations Charter and universally recognized norms of international law, taking into account current realities and trends of world development.
Such a Strategy, in our opinion, should reflect the presence, along with the traditional ones, of new risk factors that have emerged recently.
We also consider it necessary to include a number of UN activities in it, in particular:
- preventive diplomacy as a tool for preventing and neutralizing conflicts;
- using the potential of neutrality for a peaceful, political and diplomatic settlement of disputes and contradictions;
- rebuild a culture of trusting dialogue based on the UN General Assembly’s decisions to proclaim 2021 as the International Year of Peace and Trust and 2023 as the 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 believes there is a need to give the work of the United Nations a distinct regional context. This approach should bring due specificity to joint work and enhance its functionality and effectiveness.
I am convinced that the time has come to launch an inclusive, full-scale and systematic Central Asia – UN dialogue.
In this connection, our country takes the initiative to establish, under the auspices of the United Nations, the format of the Conference on Security in Central Asia and its adjacent zones. The purpose of the Conference is to develop approaches and solutions aimed at bringing together and synchronizing the efforts of Central Asian countries and the world community, international organizations, financial and economic institutions to ensure 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 the UN’s activities for the coming years, Turkmenistan considers the solution of urgent climatic and environmental problems. Among them, we highlight issues related to global commitments on methane.
I must say that with the accession to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, a number of relevant national programs were adopted in our country. National measures are being carried out at a priority pace in order to reduce and eliminate the negative consequences of methane emissions into the atmosphere. First of all, we are talking about a gradual transition to the introduction and use of modern environmentally friendly and resource-saving technologies, especially in the fields of energy, industry and transport.
At the same time, we welcome the efforts of the world community to implement the Global Methane Pledge.
And of course, we are counting on substantive cooperation and targeted assistance from specialized UN agencies, member states 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 Methane Commitment. We will send this document to the Organization’s Secretariat in the near future.
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, overcome a certain inertia in their consideration and begin targeted and concrete measures to form a holistic UN environmental strategy for a region with 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 the environmental problems of Central Asia, Turkmenistan proposes the establishment of a specialised structure – the Regional Center 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 Center in the capital of Turkmenistan – Ashgabat.
Central Asia is also a region directly adjacent to the Caspian Sea. Everyone knows the importance of this reservoir with its unique natural complex in the context of the planetary environmental agenda.
As a result of many years of vigorous and respectful cooperation by the littoral countries of the Caspian Sea, common key principles of Caspian Sea policy have been developed, 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 the beginning of a broad and systematic interaction of coastal states with the UN.
In this connection, Turkmenistan proposes the establishment of a 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 solution 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, and institutions.
Dear participants!
As a responsible UN member state, Turkmenistan clearly formulates and implements its approaches and actions, identifying priorities for which the contribution of our country would be tangible and would really benefit global goals and contribute to their speedy achievement.
Among such priorities, we single out 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 dialogue in this important area. Let me mention the First UN Global Conference on Sustainable Transport, which was successfully held in Ashgabat in 2016, as well as the International Meeting of Transport Ministers of Landlocked Developing Countries, organized in cooperation with the UN in Turkmenistan last summer.
We are proud that Turkmenistan’s purposeful work has been marked by the adoption by the General Assembly only in recent years of six resolutions in the field of transport initiated by Turkmenistan.
Among the latest is the Resolution “World Sustainable Transport Day” adopted in May this year. We express our gratitude to all Member States for the unanimous support of the document.
In this regard, based on the provisions of the Resolution, Turkmenistan proposes to convene a High-level Meeting on the occasion of the World Sustainable Transport Day within the framework of the current session. We hope for the assistance of the relevant UN structures in organizing this event in New York.
The most important direction of Turkmenistan’s activities for the implementation of the SDGs is the maximum assistance of the UN in solving the food problem. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with other adverse factors, exposed the vulnerability of those States where this problem has not been solved, where the population does not receive adequate nutrition.
Unity, integrity and determination are needed when considering issues related to the access of States and regions to food resources, guarantees of adequate nutrition as an inalienable right of any person, a key factor in health and normal physical development, especially children.
It is obvious that breakthrough solutions are needed here, new approaches that overcome political, ideological, and opportunistic barriers.
Based on this, Turkmenistan takes the initiative to convene a major international forum on food security under the auspices of the United Nations, in cooperation with the World Food Program, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Children’s Fund.
We express our readiness to provide conditions for hosting such an event in the capital of Turkmenistan within the agreed time frame.
Dear participants, dear heads 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 Magtymguly Fragi.
All cultural humanity pays tribute to the memory and respect of the great humanist, who made a great original contribution not only to world literature, but also in general to the development of the civilization of the East, and the whole world.
And I would like to conclude my speech with the words from Magtymguly’s poem, which is called “Appeal to Humanity”. The poet addresses such life-affirming lines to people – his contemporaries and descendants:
“A person sleeps or is awake,
He will be deeply faithful to his plans.”
Let fidelity to creative ideas, ideals of peace, justice, progress serve as the main and clear guideline in our joint work. ///TDH, 19 September 2023 [Photo credit – Embassy of Turkmenistan to the USA]
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