FIRST PLENARY SESSION: “POLICY OF PEACE AND TRUST: NEUTRALITY AND PREVENTIVE DIPLOMACY IN PEACEBUILDING” WAS HELD WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Today, on December 11, International Conference “Peace and Trust Policy – Basis of International Security, Stability and Development” continued its work in plenary sessions. The first plenary session “Policy of Peace and Trust: Neutrality and Preventive Diplomacy in Peacebuilding” was held at the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan in a hybrid format.

Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Central Asia, the Head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, Ambassador Natalia Gherman moderated the session.

Permanent Representative of Turkmenistan at the UN Aksoltan Atayeva, the Director General of the Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS) Yerlan Baidaulet, Regional Representative of the UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to Central Asia Ashita Mittal and others made their presentations at the session. The addresses of the OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid, SCO Secretary General Vladimir Norov and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva Tatiana Valovaya were translated by videoconferencing.

In the course of the presentations it was noted that the policy of neutrality contributes to the consolidation of peace and security, as well as closely connected with the instruments of preventive diplomacy, such as peace-building and purposeful activity in the field of development.

It was highlighted that the neutral policy of Turkmenistan reflects historically peace-loving tradition of the Turkmen peoples, is an organic compound of folk wisdom with a modern worldview. In this regard the objective and comprehensive assessment of the multifaceted impact of the Turkmen Neutrality on the global integral processes was given and a vision of new approaches to solving common problems in the light of foreign policy, peacekeeping initiatives of Turkmenistan is presented. Besides that it was emphasized the importance and timeliness of the International Year of Peace and Trust initiated by the President of Turkmenistan in the name of preservation of peace, stability and mutual understanding between the peoples what is the key to sustainable development.

In this context, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva Tatiana Valovaya noted that the Resolution unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2019, which proclaimed the current year as International Year of Peace and Trust, is an evidence of the commitment of the Member-States to do their best for the restoration of trust between the countries and the development of the dialogue with the aim of resolving the conflicts by peaceful means.

OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid in her video address underlined that Turkmenistan as a neutral state has strategic role in promoting multilateral diplomacy which is carried out within international organizations, including the OSCE.

In addition, the same day the round table on the results of the International Conference “Peace and Trust Policy – Basis of International Security, Stability and Development” was organized at the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

During the event there were brief speeches of Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Central Asia, the Head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, Ambassador Natalia Gherman, UN Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan D.Shlapachenko and Rector of the International University for the Humanities and Development E.Aydogdyev on the results of teach plenary session.

Thus, according to the outcomes of the International Conference entitled “Peace and Trust Policy – Basis of International Security, Stability and Development” the Final Document was adopted.