On the 4th of February 2021, a meeting was held via videoconferencing between the Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Under-Secretary-General Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, informs the web-site of the MFA of Turkmenistan.
During the meeting, the parties highly appraised the current level of cooperation of Turkmenistan with ESCAP which is enriched with new content, particularly in such key vectors as energy, statistics, trade and transport, migration management, natural disasters’ risk reduction and others.
It was stated that Turkmenistan welcomes the work of ESCAP, including that on consulting and personnel training, generalization of regional experience and information.ESCAP is one of the partners on implementing the “Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework between the Government of Turkmenistan and the United Nations for 2021-2025” signed in March of last year.
The commitment of Turkmenistan to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda till 2030 was reiterated during the meeting, which is reflected in the national programs and cooperation with regional and international partners.
Thereupon, a number of initiatives of the Turkmen side on the expansion of the partnership with ESCAP were voiced, in particular on the resolution of social, economic and ecological issues in the countries of Central Asia and neighboring regions.
During the dialog, special emphasis was made on the situation in the world resulting from the pandemic.It was stated that Turkmenistan is ready to cooperate to overcome the economic, social and financial impacts of the epidemic.
The country calls on to strengthen multilateral partnership in the given matter.One of the vivid and concrete examples of this is the High-level International Conference entitled “Financing the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals: the Role of Integrated National Financing Mechanisms” that was held online in May of last year upon the initiative of Turkmenistan.
The joint actions taking into consideration the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Legal Migration (GCM) were discussed at the meeting.The concrete activities of Turkmenistan on migration implemented on the national level were shared.
The parties especially focused on the Central Asian region.It was stated that Turkmenistan plays a significant role form the perspective of deepening economic integration and strengthening humanitarian cooperation in the region.
The Government pays special attention to the issues of ecology and rational use of water resources.The Aral Sea problems were also discussed.During the meeting, the key aspects of collaboration in the framework of the UN Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), as well as opportunities of expanding cooperation in the area of statistics and trade, particularly by acquiring experience in the field of paperless cross-border trade on the ESCAP platform were discussed.
It was stated that Turkmenistan is ready to cooperate further with the UN and its regional Commissions for the sustainable development.