Natalia Gherman, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Central Asia and Head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, held a press conference for local and foreign mass media, whose representatives had the opportunity to connect to the event online.
Opening the meeting, Natalia Gherman noted that the past year was not easy for the whole world due to the consequences of the global pandemic. It made a lot of changes in our lives, forced us to adapt to new conditions and rebuild our work and life processes.
“However, despite this, we managed to achieve great triumphs,” said the head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy, naming the main arrangements and events of the year.
Ms. Gherman emphasized that the Central Asian countries supported the UN initiatives related to the consequences of the global pandemic and actively joined regional and international efforts to reduce its negative impact.
“There are many examples of mutual support throughout the region, said the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative.In addition to humanitarian assistance, the region countries tried to keep open the main transit transport corridors and coordinate border crossing procedures to facilitate the delivery of strategically important goods.
Central Asian countries also provide uninterrupted supply of electricity, gas and oil.”
According to Ms. Natalia Gherman, this year was also very productive for the Regional Center, which actively continued its program activities in cooperation with the five countries of the region and Afghanistan.
One of the central events of last year was the international conference on the policy of neutrality of Turkmenistan, which was held on December 12 and was marked by the adoption of the final document.
The Ashgabat outcome document was published in the official languages of the United Nations and distributed as documents of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.
“We consider this document as a kind of bridge on the way to 2021,” Ms. Gherman said, recalling that this year at the initiative of the Turkmen leader was declared by the UN as the International Year of Peace and Trust.
As the UN Secretary-General has predicted in his recent speeches, 2021 will bring new big challenges, including the threat of hunger in conflict zones, debt crises in a number of UN member states, the ongoing viral epidemic, the spread of online misinformation and abhorrence.
“However, the UN will continue to make efforts to increase work on such topics as energy, oceans, cities, transport, education, health, food, and biodiversity,” said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the Organization.
“As for the Central Asian region, today our common goal is to make it a model of security, stability and well-being,” said Ms. Natalia Gherman.