Priority positions of Turkmenistan at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly

During the upcoming 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the efforts of a delegation of Turkmenistan will be aimed at implementing initiatives to strengthen the central role of the United Nations in the global maintenance of international peace and security, promoting the principles of multilateralism and mutually beneficial cooperation in interstate relations.

Peace and security

Turkmenistan will be guided by the strict principles of neutrality, non-interference, and firm commitment to peaceful, political means of resolving conflicts and contradictions. Our efforts will be aimed at strengthening peace and confidence in the Central Asian region, strengthening the role of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, and further developing peacekeeping, non-proliferation and disarmament mechanisms in accordance with the New Agenda for Peace.

In accordance with the United Nations General Assembly resolution 78/266 of 21 March 2024, it is planned to hold the inauguration of the International Year of Peace and Trust in Turkmenistan in December 2024 and to implement activities within the framework of the roadmap for the International Year of Peace and Trust in 2025.

Turkmenistan will continue organizational work on the development of a Global Security Strategy. Turkmenistan sees the application of preventive diplomacy, warning and avoidance of conflict situations, as well as the practical use of the possibilities of neutrality and the accumulated historical experience of neutral countries as one of the main provisions of this document. In this context, the Turkmen side is ready for close cooperation with all interested States, as well as with the relevant bodies, agencies and institutions of the United Nations.

Turkmenistan intends to submit to the First Committee of the UN General Assembly a draft resolution “Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia” on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty, and the holding the first Consultative Meeting of the participating countries in Ashgabat on 15 October 2009.

During the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, we will submit to the UN General Assembly a draft resolution on “Zone of Peace, Trust and Cooperation of Central Asian” based on the resolution adopted in 2022 and the results of the debate held on 16 May 2023 at the initiative of Turkmenistan under agenda item 61 of the 77th session of the General Assembly.

We intend to submit to the UN General Assembly a draft resolution on “Permanent Neutrality of Turkmenistan” on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s permanent neutrality status.

In this regard, it is important to intensify multilateral cooperation within the framework of the Group of Friends of Neutrality for peace, security and development, and to organize and hold the next high-level meeting of the Group of Friends in Ashgabat in December 2024.

Reaffirming our readiness to continue close cooperation with United Nations specialized counter-terrorism structures, we will develop cooperation with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism Programme Office in Doha, specializing respectively in critical infrastructure protection and behavioral aspects of counter-terrorism. Based on the agreements reached earlier, we propose to hold an international event in Turkmenistan in November 2024 to launch of the UNCTC Guidelines on Critical Infrastructure Protection.

We aim at completing the consideration with the UN Counter-Terrorism Office of the conditions for the establishment of the UNOCT Program Office for Central Asia in Ashgabat.

Against the background of the escalation of military and political rivalry and the creation of new bloc configurations in various regions of the world, it is proposed to begin work on the “return” of the values and principles of the Non-Aligned Movement to the international agenda. In Turkmenistan’s view, one of the principles of revitalization the activities of the Non-Aligned Movement should be neutrality, the philosophy of which is close and understandable to the majority of the Non-Aligned States. Neutrality should therefore become one of the defining ideological and practical approaches in the new activities of the Non-Aligned Movement.

To that end, Turkmenistan invites NAM Member States to begin to develop coordinated approaches to the inclusion in Turkmenistan’s initiative on the Global Security Strategy of a provision on support for neutrality as a factor in preserving universal peace and stability and preventing and neutralizing conflicts.

Taking into account the successful experience of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia in Ashgabat, we propose to convene a meeting of the heads of the UN Centers for Preventive Diplomacy in Ashgabat in 2025 to exchange experience and establish cooperation between the countries of the region.

With the growing number of international conflicts and their increasing complexity, the need for professional and experienced mediators is becoming more and more obvious. Turkmenistan, which has extensive experience in maintaining neutrality and peace initiatives, proposes to create a specialized programme for the training and work of UN global mediators.

Sustainable development

Efforts in the socio-economic and sustainable development areas will be aimed at promoting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda with a focus on poverty eradication, improving the international financial architecture to support developing countries, strengthening global energy and transport connectivity, mitigating climate change, restoring fragile ecosystems, and balancing the development of global communications and technology and artificial intelligence systems.

In that connection, we propose to proceed to consideration of the following initiatives of Turkmenistan:

• Development of a Global Framework for the Transition to a Circular Economy;
• Preparation of a draft Action Plan for the implementation of the United Nations Decade for Sustainable Transport 2026-2035 in cooperation with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the five UN regional economic commissions;
• Holding an international event in Turkmenistan to commemorate World Sustainable Transport Day and the next Ministerial Meeting of the Group of Friends of Sustainable Transport, in accordance with UN General Assembly resolution 78/148 on “Strengthening the links between all modes of transport to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”;
• The establishment of the Global Atlas of Sustainable Transport Connectivity and the Alliance for Global Energy Security and Sustainable Development. Our country will continue its efforts to achieve mutual understanding in these areas as a key condition for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Environment and climate change

As an important step in adopting a strategic approach to environmental problems in Central Asia, Turkmenistan will continue to work on the establishment of a specialized structure, the Regional Centre for Climate Change Technologies in Central Asia, which would work on climate issues in a substantive and systematic manner.

Pursuant to United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) resolution 79/8 “Consideration of modalities for the establishment of a United Nations Special Program for the Aral Sea Basin” of 19 May 2023, Turkmenistan will continue consultations with the relevant United Nations agencies on the preparation of project documents for the establishment of the United Nations Special Program for the Aral Sea Basin (UN SPAS).

The most important issue that goes far beyond the regional framework is the preservation of the unique natural wealth of the Caspian Sea. In this regard, in order to give concrete content to international efforts in this matter, we propose to organize the Second Caspian Environmental Forum in November 2025.

Social development

In the context of activities to strengthen women’s rights and opportunities, we suggest considering the creation of a mechanism for regular international consultations of the Dialogue on the implementation of the global agenda “Women, Peace and Security” with the participation of UN agencies: the UN Peacebuilding Commission, UN Women and other international and regional organizations. We believe it is reasonable to implement such a mechanism based on the potential of the Central Asian Women’s Dialogue initiated by Turkmenistan.

We will continue to support the work of the Central Asian Youth Dialogue, established at the initiative of Turkmenistan to implement the international agenda “Youth, Peace and Security”.

Turkmenistan has done significant work to reduce and prevent statelessness. Taking into account the positive experience in this area, Turkmenistan intends to organize a regional conference on the above-mentioned topics.

In order to further implement initiatives in the field of sports diplomacy and strengthen Turkmenistan’s role in the international arena as one of the key players in promoting the global agenda “Sport for Peace and Development”, it is proposed to develop the experience of the first United Nations diplomatic Games held in April 2024 within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly Sustainable Development Week in New York. In this regard, together with the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, we intend to submit to the UN General Assembly a draft resolution aimed at consolidating the annual practice of holding the above-mentioned Games under the auspices of the United Nations to realize the potential of sport as a tool to strengthen international humanitarian cooperation, interstate dialogue and trust.

In order to promote intercultural dialogue and implementation of the UN General Assembly resolutions to support multilingualism in international relations, it is proposed to continue work on promoting the draft resolution of the UN General Assembly “World Day of Turkic Languages”.

Final Provisions

Turkmenistan intends to work actively both in a national capacity and international formats to preserve and strengthen global peace, stability and security, and to fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals.

We reaffirm our firm commitment to the non-alternativity of the United Nations as the only international body with universal legitimacy and mandate. Based on the inviolability of recognized international legal norms and the UN Charter, we will do our utmost to support the efforts of the international community to normalize and de-escalate the geopolitical situation in the world. In this context, Turkmenistan will actively promote the idea of respectful international dialogue and the implementation of the United Nations General Assembly resolution on declaring 2025 the International Year of Peace and Trust at the initiative of our country.