Today, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov took part in a video session of the non-aligned Movement in the format of a Contact group. The forum discussed the consolidation of common efforts in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, which has become a new, extremely serious challenge for the entire world community, the state news Agency of Turkmenistan reports.
The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan took part in the summit – President of the non-aligned Movement Ilham Aliyev, President of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly Tijani Muhammad-Bande, Director-General of the world Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Chairman of the African Union Commission Musa Faki Mahamat, Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, high representative of the European Union for foreign Affairs and security policy, Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrel, heads of state and government of over 40 countries.
Speaking at the video summit "We are together against COVID-19", President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov proposed to develop and adopt a program document within the framework of the non-aligned Movement, which has 120 States in its ranks, including the basic principles of solidarity of the member States in the fight.
"It is probably possible to solve short – term problems and achieve local success alone, but the pandemic is a global challenge and therefore requires a global response, a long – term strategy of universal character and coverage," Berdimuhamedov said.
Touching on the second aspect, the head of Turkmenistan stated that the most important element of multilateral efforts today is mutual assistance of States-organizational, moral, financial and material.
"When providing such assistance, any form of politicization, discrimination, or any counter-conditions are unacceptable," Berdimuhamedov said.
The Turkmen leader also noted that close interaction between professionals is of great importance in the fight against the pandemic and its consequences, which implies a constant exchange of experience, knowledge and information on methods of treatment and prevention of the disease, medical drugs and equipment, and personal protective equipment. In this context, the head of Turkmenistan spoke about the expediency of creating a Council of medical scientists of non-aligned States.
Turning to the fourth aspect, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted that joint multilateral work should be carried out under the coordinating role of the United Nations and in close cooperation with the world health organization, which has accumulated unique experience in fighting viral diseases.
Expressing Turkmenistan's full support for who's work and sincerely thanking its management and staff for their dedicated and professional work, the head of state stressed that our country will continue to actively cooperate with this authoritative international structure and is ready to provide it with all possible assistance.
As President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted, there is a need in the current situation to establish effective channels of partnership between the non-aligned Movement and who, first of all, through the medical communities of our countries. Speaking about this, the Turkmen leader proposed to instruct the Governments of the non-aligned Movement Member States to work together on schemes and forms of such joint activities.
The non-aligned movement was created during the cold war at the Belgrade conference in September 1961-it included States that did not want to join the NATO bloc or the Warsaw Pact, in particular, Yugoslavia, India and Egypt. Currently, the non-aligned Movement unites 120 countries that refused to participate in military blocs, 17 States and 10 international organizations have observer status with the organization.
