Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, March 3 / Trend H.Hasanov /
Turkmenistan and the UN in recent years "have carried out shoulder to shoulder a lot of work on such key areas as energy security, transport, environment, combating drug trafficking, the fight against terrorism and extremism," address of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says.
The letter has been addressed to the participants of the international conference "Turkmenistan-UN: 20 Years of Cooperation" held recently in Ashgabat, the Turkmen state news service reported on Saturday.
Turkmenistan is one of the initiators of the beginning of multilateral dialogue within the UN to develop international legal mechanisms regulating the issues of transit and transportation of fuels.
Mentioning the fact that the UN recognized the neutrality status of Turkmenistan in 1995, the UN chief "stressed the urgency of initiatives put forward by Turkmenistan to address the situation in Afghanistan".
The heads of the diplomatic missions accredited in Ashgabat, the heads of local offices of agencies and divisions of the UN, representatives of key ministries, agencies and public organizations of the country attended the Ashgabat forum.
The headquarters of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia is situated in Ashgabat. Among the main activities of the office are promoting the establishment of effective relationships in Central Asia, water and energy issues, general disarmament, the political settlement of the situation in Afghanistan, combating international terrorism, improvement of the ecological and socio-economic situation in the Aral Sea basin.
It was reported earlier that Turkmenistan proposed to hold in Ashgabat a representative forum on security in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea region.