Last week, the conference hall of the “Ýyldyz” Hotel hosted a meeting of the Interstate Commission for Sustainable Development (ICSD) which coordinates and manages regional cooperation in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development of Central Asian countries. The agenda of the meeting was mainly focused on delegating the 2015-2016 chairmanship of the Interstate Commission to Turkmenistan – an active advocate of the interstate relations development in environmental issues in the region on the basis of partnership with the leading international organizations. The urgency of such interaction was also confirmed by particular attention President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon concentrated in the course of the bilateral talks which were held in Ashgabat on June 13. In the course of talks, the ecological aspect was defined as one of the important vectors of cooperation and an integral factor of global sustainable development. Among the numerous foreign participants of the meeting were the delegations of executives and leading specialists of state environmental institutions of the Republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, as well as representatives of international organizations – the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Regional Ecological Center for Central Asia, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). As part of the preparations for the meeting, co-organized on the instruction of the head of state by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Nature Protection of Turkmenistan in association with the ISCD Secretariat and the Research Center in Ashgabat, a preliminary two-day working meeting was held in the Turkmen capital of the representatives and experts of all the delegations – the participants in the meeting of the Interstate Commission which operates within the framework of the International Aral Sea Fund. Submitted at the meeting Conception of Turkmenistan’s ISCD chairmanship envisages further development and strengthening of cooperation between the Central Asian countries on a whole range of environmental issues on the basis of the accumulated successful experience in tackling the existing and incipient ecological problems in the region; promotion of closer cooperation between the region’s countries and large international organizations, first of all with the United Nations, its specialized agencies and institutions in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development. In this connection, the meeting attendees noted with satisfaction the fact that thanks to the progressive policy of the nation’s leader Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, Turkmenistan had authored a number of concrete initiatives which were voiced at the UN General Assembly and large international forums, such as the “Rio+20” World Summit in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the III United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai (Japan), the VII World Water Forum in Taegu (the Republic of Korea). In the context of the present-day reality, the initiative of the nation’s leader to establish a specialized agency under the aegis of the United Nations – the Regional Climate Change Center for Central Asia - is of great importance. As President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov informed the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the within-said talks, the Turkmen party was ready to provide the necessary infrastructure for the Center in Ashgabat. Thus, it is quite reasonable that by the resolutions of the Interstate Commission for Sustainable Development, Turkmenistan has been entrusted with coordination of regional cooperation in assessing the countries’ potential in the field of climate change. As part of the adopted National Climate Change Strategy of Turkmenistan, the National Afforestation Program is being successfully implemented in the country; the National Climate Change Adaptation and Prevention Plan is being worked out which will embrace all the areas of climate change prevention and the measures for adapting the national economy’s sectors to it. As was noted, all the areas of Turkmenistan’s activity during its ISCD chairmanship would be aimed at the preservation of Central Asia’s unique environment and sustainable use of its natural resources, promotion of the region’s peoples’ economic and social development. The meeting resulted in adopting the ISCD Sustainable Development Action Plan within the scope of regional cooperation, as well as the relevant decisions were adopted in the field of water resources and quality management, application of innovative technologies in the sphere of renewable energy sources and “green economy”, the initiatives on the issues of climate change and land degradation.