By Maral Rahymova,
Third Secretary of the Embassy of Turkmenistan in the Italian Republic
Turkmenistan’s foreign policy course, successfully pursued by the leadership of the country’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, is being transformed into practice based on concrete actions to implement international initiatives within the framework of multilateral cooperation with the United Nations and with the states of the world community. The leader of the nation Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, developing the idea of the institute of neutrality and taking concrete steps demonstrated by the foreign policy activity of modern Turkmenistan, comprehensively reveals the deep historical roots of peacefulness and traditions of good neighborliness, which have become an organic component of the Turkmen people’s mindset. Another solid piece of evidence of the growing credibility and actualization of the institute of neutrality based on the example of our country is the declaration by the UN General Assembly of the year 2021 as the International Year of Peace and Trust on the initiative of Turkmenistan. The UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/73/338, unanimously adopted on September 12, 2019, was another step towards establishing a culture of dialogue in resolving emerging issues and conflicts, which is one of the primary priorities of Turkmenistan’s foreign policy.
The intensification of fruitful contacts with the UN and its major specialized agencies and structures is primarily due to the active and proactive position of Turkmenistan in the affairs of the world community, its desire to provide real assistance in solving regional and global problems. A remarkable fact in this regard is that Turkmenistan successfully served as Vice-Chair of the past 75th session of the UN General Assembly.
The election of Turkmenistan as Vice-Chair to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) for the period 2021-2023 and as a member of UN-Women Executive Board for the period 2022-2024 also testifies to the further strengthening and increasing the credibility of our state in the international arena. Turkmenistan also continues to actively participate in the implementation of global strategies and programs within the framework of its membership in the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Trade and Development Council of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, the United Nations Commission on Social Development, the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, as well as in a number of other specialized bodies and structures of the United Nations.
The adoption in March 2021 in Ashgabat of the Framework Program for Cooperation in the Field of Sustainable Development between Turkmenistan and the United Nations for 2021-2025 also reflects the compliance of the goals of cooperation between our country and the United Nations with both the priorities of national programs implemented in our country and the Sustainable Development Goals for the period up to 2030. This document is intended to promote further cooperation between Turkmenistan and the UN in various areas, including maintaining economic stability and growth, protecting the social rights of the population, improving the health system, and preserving environmental balance.
It is symbolic that the national motto of 2021 “Turkmenistan – Home of Peace and Trust” determines the promotion and implementation of ideas and proposals of significant new content, which can become the basis for subsequent interaction within the framework of the International Year of Peace and Trust.
The systematic and consistent nature of Turkmenistan’s constructive engagement with the UN and its leading structures is also reflected in the fact that every year, during the preparation for another session of the UN General Assembly, under the leadership of the Head of State, Priority positions of Turkmenistan on the global problems of the modern world, initiatives and proposals are developed and approved in line with a peace-loving policy based on the foreign policy doctrine and the legal status of our country’s neutrality. This is confirmed by the recently published Priority Positions of Turkmenistan at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly reflecting the principled vision of our state of the main directions of global partnership for the upcoming period of activity of the main body of the Community of Nations. The priority positions of Turkmenistan at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, the international initiatives and proposals put forward determine the approaches of our country to active collaboration with all Member states of the Organization, UN bodies, institutions, and agencies.
The priority positions of Turkmenistan at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly are organically combined with the tasks defined in the Concept of the Foreign Policy Course of Neutral Turkmenistan for 2017-2023, which are aimed at providing favorable external environment for the progressive development of our state and society, at further building up constructive cooperation on a regional and global scale in the name of ensuring universal peace, security and well-being.
As emphasized in the Priorities: "Turkmenistan considers the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly as an important stage in the consistent consolidation of international efforts to address key issues on the global agenda, to affirm the central and coordinating role of the United Nations in preserving and strengthening universal peace, stability and security, and the full implementation of the declared Sustainable Development Goals. In its activities during the upcoming session of the General Assembly, Turkmenistan will be guided by strict adherence to the principles of neutrality, non-interference, and a firm commitment to peaceful, political means of resolving conflicts and disputes.”
The core of the Priorities is a set of political and diplomatic measures aimed at the practical implementation of international initiatives and proposals of the President of Turkmenistan. They are grouped according to such topical areas as: 1. Consolidation of the efforts of the international community in the fight against the pandemic; 2. Issues of international politics, peace, and security; 3. Sustainable development; 4. International humanitarian cooperation. These areas of global engagement reflect the complexity and interconnectedness of the comprehensive international environment, which requires coordinated actions of all participants of the Community of Nations without exception. At the same time, they testify to the clearly defined approaches of Turkmenistan to the global and regional issues of our time, based on the priorities of national development and the consolidation of the efforts of the international community as an independent and sovereign state – a full-fledged member of the UN.
The Priority Positions of Turkmenistan at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly clearly outline the strategy of our state for further strengthening the coordinated efforts of the world community to combat a new type of coronavirus infection, the political and socio-economic effects of its spread. At the same time, Turkmenistan considers it unacceptable to politicize the problems of the spread of coronavirus and emphasizes the importance of unity and solidarity of all member states and organizations of the UN system in the fight against a common threat. The Priorities emphasize the need to strengthen the universal capacity for preparedness, collective resilience and response to health emergencies based on the developed strategies and plans of the United Nations to counter coronavirus infection. At the same time, this document emphasizes that “the World Health Organization (WHO) is the main platform for a multilateral dialogue to develop consolidated, mutually agreed responses to common challenges in the field of global health. We believe that the most effective way to minimize the negative economic impacts of the pandemic is to strengthen the work of the relevant United Nations structures in certain key areas of global economic recovery.” In this regard, Turkmenistan expresses its intention to intensify its efforts to strengthen the stability of international transport systems in emergency situations, based on the provisions of the UN General Assembly Resolution “Strengthening the Links between all Modes of Transport to Ensure Stable and Reliable International Transport for Sustainable Development during and after the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic”. It is noteworthy that this international document was adopted on the initiative of Turkmenistan on July 29, 2021.
A distinctive feature of the state and political wisdom of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov is a holistic vision and the search for a comprehensive solution to the most complex issues of our time, including those that concern the international community. In this regard, one of the strategic priorities of the state policy of Turkmenistan is to ensure the welfare of the nation as a whole and the health of the population, and to achieve environmental well-being.
The human dimension of neutrality in the context of its humanitarian aspect demonstrates the mutual combination of forms and methods of the main areas of diplomacy, in this case scientific and environmental. The basic principle of science diplomacy was outlined by the President of Turkmenistan during the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement held in digital format on May 4, 2020. In particular, the Head of State said that “Close cooperation among professionals is of great importance in the fight against the pandemic and its effects. It is necessary to fully use the mechanisms of science diplomacy. It implies a constant exchange of expertise, knowledge and information on methods of treatment and prevention of the disease, medical drugs and personal protective equipment.” In this context, the President of Turkmenistan brought to the attention of the world community ideas on promoting the tools of science diplomacy, including the creation of an international Council of Medical Scientists. This will contribute to the increasing multilateral cooperation through science diplomacy, the development of mechanisms for joint research on the nature of the origin of a new type of coronavirus, forms of manifestation of diseases caused by this infection, as well as methods of their treatment and prevention. As part of the implementation and further promotion of initiatives in this area, Turkmenistan intends to promote proposals for the establishment of the following international and regional tools during the 76th session of the General Assembly: the Special Program of the World Health Organization for the Study of the Coronavirus Genome; the Multilateral Mechanism of the World Health Organization to Combat Pneumonia; the Methodological Center of the World Health Organization for the Treatment and Prevention of Acute Infections; the Central Asian Regional Center for Epidemiology, Virology and Bacteriology.
The Priorities identify milestone foreign policy tasks on issues of international politics, peace, and security, where “assistance to the international community in preserving and strengthening universal peace, security and strategic stability” is emphasized as the core line of Turkmenistan’s activities at the United Nations. The principled position of Turkmenistan has been and remains the solution of international issues only by peaceful, political and diplomatic means and methods, while striving to develop mutually acceptable and balanced approaches to expanding multilateral cooperation on strengthening peace and security. In this regard, the Priorities provide for the implementation of a number of concrete practical steps for the further actual realization of the potential of neutrality as an effective tool for peacemaking and achieving constructive consensus decisions, as well as the implementation of the provisions of the UN General Assembly Resolution “The Role and Importance of a Policy of Neutrality in Maintaining and Strengthening International Peace, Security and Sustainable Development”, adopted on the initiative of Turkmenistan on December 7, 2020. Within the framework of this initiative, during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, Turkmenistan intends to continue regular meetings of the Group of Friends of Neutrality for Peace, Security and Sustainable Development. Turkmenistan plans to convene an International Conference “Peace and Trust Policy – Basis of International Security, Stability and Development” in Ashgabat in December 2021. This forum is intended to summarize the results of the global campaign initiated by the Turkmen side to strengthen the culture of peace and trust, eliminate the current lack of trust in international relations.
The actualization of Turkmenistan’s neutrality as an effective tool of geopolitics is particularly visible in regional and interregional contexts when the vast space in the center of the Asian continent is rapidly being involved in the orbit of world processes. At the same time, it should be noted that the countries of the Central Asian region are becoming not just participants, but also active actors in the formation of new formats of dialogue designed to significantly determine the positive foundations for prospects of fruitful partnership for peace, security, and sustainable development. In fact, these regions are a crossroads through which transport corridors and energy bridges of the Eurasian continent are laid. If we consider that the world’s largest hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated here, it can be argued that the prospects for global development will largely be determined at this intersection, both from a geopolitical and geo-economic point of view.
In this regard, it should be noted that, as before, cooperation with the UN remains the initial and determining vector of Turkmenistan’s foreign policy course. International initiatives and constructive initiatives of Turkmenistan at the level of the Community of Nations are aimed at giving a new impetus to the consistent, integrated and coordinated engagement of all interested parties. When forming its approaches to the problem of ensuring universal security, Turkmenistan’s position is based on the fundamental concept of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov about the integrity and indivisibility of this concept – both in the geopolitical sense and in terms of the interconnectedness of its specific aspects. The essence of this concept is that the security of one country cannot be ensured in the absence of security in the region, on the continent, in the world. Just as political or military security will not be long-term and full-fledged without ensuring economic, energy, food security, without preventing and neutralizing risks and threats of an environmental, man-made nature, without effectively countering international terrorism, organized crime, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other global challenges.
In this context, Turkmenistan, based on the initiative to establish a dialogue on security and cooperation in the Central Asian region, proposes to establish an International Forum on Security, Peace and Development in Central Asia, which would operate on a regular basis. The Priorities express Turkmenistan’s intention to initiate, during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, the submission by all Central Asian states of a draft resolution of the General Assembly “Strengthening Regional and International Cooperation to Ensure Peace, Stability and Sustainable Development in the Central Asian Region”, based on the resolution of the same name adopted in 2018. The engagement of the UN member states in the process of preparing, discussing, and adopting this document is designed to emphasize the importance of Central Asia once again as an integral and important part of modern global geopolitical and geo-economic processes, as well as to balance the transformations taking place in the region with the global agenda. As noted in the Priorities: “the consideration and adoption of this document will contribute to the practical implementation of the international initiatives of the Central Asian countries, reflected in the final document of the Consultative Meeting of the Heads of Central Asian States held on 6 August 2021 in Turkmenistan.”
Realizing the interconnectedness and inseparability of the issues of maintaining international peace, security and sustainable development in Central Asia and the Caspian basin region, Turkmenistan will take the initiative to create a Zone of Peace, Trust and Cooperation “Central Asia – the Caspian region” during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly. We consider this model as a platform for promoting initiatives aimed at strengthening multilateral cooperation in the interests of global peace and development. The Priorities also express the intention to consolidate this initiative during the upcoming Sixth Caspian Summit, scheduled to be held in Turkmenistan in 2021.
Turkmenistan will continue to promote the ideas, mechanisms, and tools of preventive diplomacy, which is designed to play a special role in solving the tasks of maintaining peace and security, countering new challenges and threats. In this regard, Turkmenistan will continue to provide maximum assistance to the work of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia with headquarters in Ashgabat, based on the resolutions of the UN General Assembly on the role of this center, adopted on the initiative of Turkmenistan in 2017 and 2021. “In particular, we intend to further promote such dialogue platforms initiated by the Regional Center, such as the Preventive Diplomacy Academy for Youth and the Central Asian Women Dialogue, which are aimed at implementing the relevant UN Security Council resolutions on “Women, Peace and Security” and “Youth, Peace and Security”.
Turkmenistan expresses its firm determination to further strengthen the effective fight against serious challenges and threats to international security, such as terrorism, extremism, cross-border organized crime, illicit trafficking in drugs and weapons, and human trafficking. In this regard, Turkmenistan will pay special attention during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly to the implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy at the regional level, based on the provisions of the Ashgabat Declaration of 2011 and the Joint Action Plan for Countering Terrorism in Central Asia. Advocating for the development of new international legal tools to counter emerging threats, in particular, cybercrime and related challenges to international information security, Turkmenistan will support enhanced process of developing an international convention on countering the use of information and communication technologies for criminal purposes under the auspices of the United Nations.
In the framework of the initiatives and proposals of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, in the upcoming 76th session, Turkmenistan will also advocate for the intensification of cooperation in the following areas:
• to set up a Global Forum on Information Security and Cooperation as a regular multilateral dialogue under the auspices of the UN to ensure broad international discussion of global challenges associated with the use of global information networks, as well as the prospects of using information technology to strengthen regional and international stability;
• to consistently strengthen the multilateral non-proliferation and disarmament regime, assigning a central role to the United Nations and its multilateral disarmament mechanism in this direction;
• to continue contributing to the processes of peaceful settlement of the situation in Afghanistan and, in this context, to intensify the activities of specialized United Nations structures designed to provide comprehensive assistance to Afghanistan, to consider the possibility of creating new international mechanisms to support Afghanistan based on the positive experience of the countries – immediate neighbors of this State – in addressing Afghan issues.
The actualization of the ideas of peace and development, stability, and constructive interaction of participants in the system of international relations is increasingly visible on the agenda of many forums and discussion platforms of a multilateral nature initiated at the UN level, primarily to achieve the 2030 Goals. In this context, the Priority Positions of Turkmenistan at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly provide for specific areas of engagement in the UN system on sustainable development issues. As it is noted in the Priorities: “Turkmenistan considers energy, industry, transport and trade as strategic areas of the United Nations economic activity, which are key to ensuring favorable international conditions in the post-crisis period of global economic recovery and are able to provide the necessary incentives for expanding economic and trade cooperation and the growth of world industrial production.” As one of the key positions, Turkmenistan highlights the consistent promotion of the issue of ensuring proper funding in the implementation of Global programs and Strategies, the main of which is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In this regard, Turkmenistan expresses its firm intention to support the previously adopted multilateral tools for monitoring the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, our country will start working on the second Voluntary National Review on the Progress in Implementation of the Global Goals for its subsequent submission in 2023.
Also, during the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly, Turkmenistan intends to give special emphasis to the following issues:
• ensuring universal access to reliable, stable, financially efficient, and modern energy sources (Sustainable Development Goal No. 7). To continue the multilateral dialogue in this direction, Turkmenistan proposes to organize in 2022, together with the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative, an International Forum to accelerate progress in achieving SDG-7, paying special attention to the issues of sustainable transit of energy resources and the creation of modern UN international legal tools in this regard.
• continuing efforts within the Community of Nations to widely discuss and implement comprehensive measures of engagement on the issues of sustainable transport, to establish this avenue for multilateral collaboration as a separate segment of the United Nations activities. In this context, Turkmenistan calls on all states and specialized agencies of the UN system to take a constructive and effective part in the development of the UN Special Interregional Program for the Development of Transport;
• active promotion of strategic directions of economic diplomacy and closer cooperation of the United Nations with regional and sub-regional organizations on the basis of the principles laid down in the UN Charter;
• increased multilateral dialogue on the problems of climate change, environmental protection, ensuring environmental safety, and water resources management. Turkmenistan considers the consolidation of efforts in the issues of adaptation and mitigation of climate change, the implementation of measures for the development of low-carbon energy as the key areas of the international dialogue;
• continuation of the special and focused attention of the world community, represented by the UN, to the issues of minimizing the consequences of the environmental disaster of the Aral Sea.
In Turkmenistan, where the person is declared the highest value of society at the constitutional level, the content and essence of major program measures are determined by the motto “The State is for the Person!” and are aimed at ensuring the well-being and health of the nation, especially its younger generation. In this regard, international humanitarian cooperation is one of the strategic directions of Turkmenistan’s foreign policy and diplomacy. The Priority positions of Turkmenistan at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly provide for specific policy measures of practical interaction to develop multilateral humanitarian cooperation in the international arena.
In this context, Turkmenistan intends to emphasize efforts in the following priority areas:
- intensification of cooperation with specialized structures of the United Nations on the implementation of national, regional and global strategies, programs and action plans to ensure human rights and freedoms adopted on the basis of international legal documents of the United Nations;
- equal interstate cooperation in the field of promotion and protection of human rights on the basis of the existing mechanisms of international law and respect for State sovereignty and sovereign equality of States;
- strengthening the efforts of the UN specialized agencies, in particular, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the context of migration crises in certain countries and regions of the world;
- attaching special importance to the development of cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In this regard, Turkmenistan intends to expand its engagement in the work of UNESCO specialized structures, being a member of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Executive Board of UNESCO and the Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport of UNESCO, as well as promoting its election to the Intergovernmental Council of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Program of UNESCO for the period 2021-2025.
Thus, Turkmenistan, proclaiming Priority Positions at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, openly and clearly expressed its commitment to continue efforts to strengthen the central and coordinating role of the Community of Nations, which is the only universal platform for developing compromise solutions based on an equal dialogue, and calls on all partners to work together effectively for the sake of affirming the high ideals of peace and justice, the implementation of global goals and objectives.
The constructivism and consistency of the position of the President of Turkmenistan on topical issues of international life, primarily on building the potential of neutrality as an effective tool of global and regional policy, is based on a deep and comprehensive analysis of current global trends. This allows us to put forward innovative proposals aimed at creating a fundamentally new model of relations, which are primarily based on universal principles provided for by the Community of Nations.