Today, the International Conference “Peace and Trust Policy – Basis of International Security, Stability and Development” has taken place in the Congress Centre of the capital and President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has attended its solemn plenary session.

In the morning, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov arrived in the venue of the international forum. Chairpersons of the Mejlis of the Milli Gengesh and Deputy-Chairmen of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, who congratulated the leader of the nation on International Day of Neutrality and the International Conference “Peace and Trust Policy – Basis of International Security, Stability and Development” which is held on the occasion of this holiday, welcomed the head of the state there.

Top executives of Economic Cooperation Organization, Organization of Turkic States and International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY) and others were among high-level guests.

Standing, with noisy applauds and great inspiration, the gathered greet Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

In the solemn atmosphere, the international conference is declared open.

The floor is given to the head of the Turkmen state.

Warmly welcoming the present, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov expressed his gratitude to all for their participation in the international conference and readiness to share with their proposals and views of the most important issues of the multi-aspect world agenda.

As the leader of the nation pointed out, in the current year, which was declared by the UN General Assembly as Year of Peace and Trust on the initiative of Turkmenistan, our country has hosted a number of international events of regional and global levels – conferences, multilateral forums, consultations, seminars and courses in which officials of governments of foreign countries, heads and representatives of important international and regional organizations, outstanding political scientists, diplomats and representatives of pubic organizations took part.

As the head of Turkmenistan noted, within the framework of the present international conference some issues of national and universal importance will be considered, opinions will be exchanged, and goals for their joint implementation in the near future will be outlined.

The events held within the framework of the International Year of Peace and Trust, have given a great impulse for development of a theoretical basis of foreign policy and legal systems and conduction of analyses in these areas. They expanded opportunities of national diplomatic schools, augmented their traditions and brought in novelty in the fundamental principles of international relations.

Further, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov continued his speech in Russian, one of the working languages of the UN.

As the Turkmen leader marked, restoration of confidence in the interstate relations assumes a special urgency amidst new challenges and threats, in particular, the coronavirus pandemic which has affected the world. It is the lack of trust, as the head of the state thinks, had become especially at the first phase, a reason of inefficient international reaction to this danger, absence of mutual understanding of necessity of adoption of urgent joint measures.

Under these circumstances, Turkmenistan as a responsible state, made a number of concrete and real proposals to the UN to join efforts to control the pandemic and establish channels of scientific and medical diplomacy.

Trust and mutual understanding are the most important preconditions for restoration of economic, trade, transport, investment relations amidst the recovery from the current crisis phenomena in the international financial and economic space, the Turkmen leader noted.

Speaking of the uniqueness of Turkmen neutrality, which is firmly based upon modern realities and age-old experience of our nation, the head of Turkmenistan underlined that it is neutrality that serves a solid guarantee for ensuring peace and security in the region and acts as a significant factor which makes an impact on the positive development of international economic and political processes.

At the end of his speech, the head of Turkmenistan congratulated participants of the conference with International Day of Neutrality and wished them great successes in their work for the cause of peace, mutual understanding and cooperation.

Continuing the solemn session, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov gave the floor to the high-level guests of the Forum of Peace and Trust.

The first floor was given to Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization Khusrav Noziri.

According to Mr Khusrav Noziri, geographical, historical and ethno-cultural realities, mentality of Turkmen people and it’s strive for good neighbourhood relations based on principles of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence have become a source for inspiration of the policy pursued by Turkmenistan.

The ECO Secretary General pointed out, that the policy, the imperative of which is the status of permanent neutrality, has raised the status of Turkmenistan in the world as the country, which strives to develop mutually beneficial relations between all countries of the world. In fact, neutrality has proved itself an important and efficient mechanism in solution of global issues exceptionally through peaceful means.

Availing of the opportunity, the leader of the nation expressed his sincere gratitude to Mr Khusrav Noziri and in his person, to all employees of the Secretariat for the given support and assistance during the chairmanship of Turkmenistan in the ECO, the current year and in particular, in the successful holding of the Ashgabat Summit of ECO on November 28.

Secretary General of the Organization of Turkic States Baghdad Amreyev, who spoke next, expressed his sincere acknowledgment to President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov for the invitation to participate in the current conference and pointed out the high organizational level of the forum, the theme of which today is as important as never.

In the historic Istanbul Summit held in November, the current year, Turkmenistan officially jointed the Organization of Turkic States as an observer. «As a result, an important missing link in the chain of Turkic cooperation has been established», – the guest said and availing of the opportunity, expressed his deep gratitude to President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov for his valuable contribution to the success of the above-mentioned Summit.

Then, the floor was given to Secretary General of the International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY) Dusen Kaseinov.

Underlining the significance of neutrality status, granted to Turkmenistan 26 years ago, on December 12, 1995 by the United Nations and recognized by 185 countries, Dusen Kaseinov stated positiveness based upon principles of neutrality of foreign policy of the independent Turkmen state, which facilitates development of friendly relations at the regional and global scales.

Speaking of the strive of the Organization he chairs, to implement the peace-making potential of Turkic speaking peoples globally on the basis of historical experience and spiritual legacy of our ancestors, Dusen Kaseinov expressed confidence in the active participation of our country in this process.

Having thanked Dusen Kaseinov for his informative speech and congratulations addressed to the Government and people of Turkmenistan, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov underlined that our country sees the cultural and humanitarian sphere as an inseparable part of areas of cooperation in multilateral, regional and bilateral formats. It fully concerns our cooperation with Turkic speaking countries as well.

The presentation of the video of the Turkmen song «Dünýä dursun, parahat» performed by famous singers of Turkic speaking countries held the day before in Ashgabat within the framework of the events timed to International Day of Neutrality, can serve the best example for it.

The floor is given to Special Representative of UN Secretary General for Central Asia, Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia N.Gherman.

Having greeted participants of the Forum of Peace and Trust, the head of UNRCCA on behalf of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed her gratitude to President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov for an important and timely initiative of Turkmenistan, in accordance with which the UN General Assembly has declared 2021 as International Year of Peace and Trust.

Natalia Gherman read the text of the message of the UN Secretary General to participants of the international conference “Peace and Trust Policy – Basis of International Security, Stability and Development”.

As Antonio Guterres underlined, for the past three decades, Turkmenistan has made an important contribution to the work of the United Nations to ensure international peace and stability, including through its all-round support to the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia.

The status of permanent neutrality of Turkmenistan has facilitated adoption of a number of important initiatives by the United Nations.

Further, in her speech, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Central Asia, Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia N.Gherman noted that today, in the modern world the crisis of trust both at the interstate and national levels serves as one of the main threats to stable and safe development. Peace and trust are key factors for strengthening bases of world order and progressive advance of architecture of modern international relations.

Continuing the solemn session, the head of the state gave the floor to UN Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan D.Shlapachenko, who expressed his gratitude for the invitation to participate in the high level international conference and sincerely congratulated President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and people of Turkmenistan on International Day of Neutrality as well as on International Year of Peace and Trust declared by the UN General Assembly on the initiative of the Turkmen side.

In the current Year of Peace and Trust jointly with the UN team, we have launched a global campaign to promote a culture of peace and a dialogue at the global level and have expanded the limits of this movement far beyond the limits of the region, have achieved practical results that enable to build future models of multilateral partnership based on principles of peacefulness and trust, the head of Turkmenistan continued his speech.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov made a special emphasis on the fact that today a number of important documents, which outline areas of cooperation for the short and long-term outlook, are signed with different agencies of the UN.

Then, Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat J.MacGregor made a speech, congratulated President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, all people of Turkmenistan on International Day of Neutrality in Turkmen, and expressed his deep gratitude for organization of such high-level meeting.

Availing of the opportunity, J.MacGregor congratulated neutral Turkmenistan with successful implementation of its initiative to declare 2021 as International Year of Peace and Trust and expressed firm confidence that this unparalleled proposal facilitated improvement of the equal dialogue and strengthening of international cooperation.

Conveying his congratulations to the Turkmen people on the occasion of International Day of Neutrality, the head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat expressed confidence that the forum timed to this date will help discuss achievements and outlook of policy of peace and trust constructively and will develop concrete recommendations related to further action on cementing values and traditions to strengthen trust and maintenance of peace on a long-term basis.

At the end of his speech the participant of the forum once again congratulated the gathered on the upcoming holiday in Turkmen saying: «Halkara bitaraplyk günüňiz gutly bolsun!».

Then, the head of Turkmenistan made a short closing speech.

Having thanked participants of the International conference for their kind words to the Government and people of Turkmenistan, the leader of the nation underlined that all the proposals, ideas, valued initiatives sounded in the conference will be certainly used for enrichment of scientific and practical basis of international relations and giving new substantial impulses to modern multilateral contacts.

According to the Turkmen leader, the holding of the conference on the eve of International Day of Neutrality is deeply symbolic and underscores the enormous potential, which the policy of neutrality possesses in the light of maintenance and strengthening of international peace, security and sustainable development.

In conclusion, having once again thanked participants of the Forum of Peace and Trust for their warm words to Turkmenistan and its people as well as for the given high appreciation of initiatives of the Turkmen side on the international arena, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov congratulated the gathered with International Day of Neutrality and wished them sound health, peace, happiness and all the best.

By that, the solemn plenary session of the conference was declared closed.

Upon its completion, the ceremony of signing of a solid package of documents, which counts 26 multilateral acts, took place.

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In the second half of the day, the International Conference “Peace and Trust Policy – Basis of International Security, Stability and Development” continued its work in the format of three thematic plenary sessions with online participation of heads and representatives of many important international organizations and regional institutes.

The titles of sessions -«Policy of Peace and Trust: Neutrality and Preventive Diplomacy in Peacebuilding», «Inseparable link between a culture of peace and sustainable development agenda», «Human dimension of the processes of building a universal culture of peace and trust» – themselves predetermined key areas and theme of discussions.

Highly appreciating an active and initiative position of our country in consolidation of efforts of international community and development of well-balanced solutions to issues of modernity, participants of the conference expressed general confidence that it will help to realize a growing role and significance of the institute of neutrality in the modern world and in particular, the learning of experience of Turkmenistan, which possesses a favourable geopolitical and geo-economic potential, in the name of sustainable development and progress of entire humanity.

Upon completion of thematic sessions of the Forum of Peace and Trust, which had become an open platform for discussion of key issues of the global agenda and important vectors of multilateral cooperation, a “round table”, which adopted the final document, was held.