The National Leader of Turkmenistan, Arkadag Berdimuhamedov, spotlighted some policy direction of Turkmenistan on Wednesday, 19 March 2025. He was delivering a keynote address at the inaugural session of the “International Year of Peace and Trust: the Role of Interregional Economic Cooperation in Ensuring Sustainable Development.”
In his speech, Arkadag highlighted the importance of the projects TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline, the TAP (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan) power transmission network, and the TAP (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan) fiber optics network.
He said that the implementation of these projects would strengthen cooperation in energy, transport, communications and a number of other areas.
Arkadag said, “These tasks can be accomplished in conditions of peace, mutual trust, and respect. All these factors are decisive in the sphere of sustainable development of our regions. It should be emphasized that in the region of Central Asia, processes aimed at strengthening security and sustainability are currently dynamically developing.”
In this regard, he noted that on March 4, the UN General Assembly, at the initiative of the Republic of Kazakhstan, adopted a Resolution on the UN Regional Centre for Sustainable Development Goals for Central Asia and Afghanistan.
The National Leader of Turkmenistan stressed that there was a very direct connection between peace and trust and the economic development.
In the later part of his speech, Arkadag lauded the latest developments in the region.
He congratulated Kazakhstan on the decision of the UN to establish the regional centre for SDGs in Almaty.
“The main task of this Center is the implementation of the UN strategy dedicated to the progressive, uniform and effective development of the countries of the region. Central Asia and the states adjacent to it represent a wide geopolitical and geoeconomic space located in the center of the Eurasian continent and therefore plays an important role in any development, both in interregional and continental processes,” he said.
“I believe that the newly created Regional Center will make a great contribution to strengthening interstate relations and comprehensive partnership between the countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan,” said Arkadag.
He described it as a major foreign policy victory of Kazakhstan.
The National Leader of Turkmenistan said, “At the beginning of this year, we presented to the world community the concept of Turkmenistan’s activities and priorities within the framework of the International Year of Peace and Trust. The main content of this document is the consolidation of international efforts to achieve peace, harmony, trust between peoples, and the restoration of a culture of trust.”
“It is gratifying that one of the first results in this direction was the signing of the Treaty on the state border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan,” he said.
“We congratulate our Kyrgyz and Tajik friends on this historic event and wish peace, well-being and prosperity to the peoples of your countries,” said Arkadag.
Speaking broadly on the border issues, he said that on the sidelines of the summit of the Organization of Turkic States, during meetings with President Japarov and President Emomali Rahmon, he shared the Turkmen experience in delimiting and demarcating the borders of Turkmenistan with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In the 90s and early 2000s, various issues and situations of a life-changing nature arose, but within a short time, mutually acceptable solutions were found and all necessary documents were signed.
Today, Turkmenistan’s borders with neighboring states are borders of peace and friendship, said Arkadag.
Speaking of the relations of Central Asia as a region focused on peace and friendship, Arkadag said that positive achievements in relations between Central Asian countries will be reinforced by the results of high-level international meetings to be held in 2025 in neighboring Uzbekistan. In the next two months, the Central Asia-EU and Central Asia-Gulf States summits will be held in Samarkand. Great expectations are also associated with the meeting of the heads of Central Asian states to be held in September this year in Tashkent. /// nCa, 19 March 2025