A wide range of issues on the regional and global agenda of mutual interest, as well as the main political, economic, cultural and humanitarian aspects of multilateral cooperation were discussed today during the 27th meeting of the OSCE Council of Ministers, which is being held in the capital of Albania in the format of a video conference.

The two-day online meeting, traditionally held at the end of the year, is attended by the foreign Ministers of the Organization for security and co-operation in Europe, including Turkmenistan.

According to the Ministry of foreign affairs of Turkmenistan, on the first day of the meeting, appeals from the OSCE Chairman-in-office and the President of the organization's parliamentary Assembly were heard. The report of the OSCE Secretariat was also presented to the participants. This was followed by plenary sessions, during which the heads of delegations, heads of foreign ministries of the OSCE participating States and partner countries made speeches.

The parties assessed the current level of cooperation in political, economic, environmental and humanitarian areas in the OSCE area. Special attention was paid to security issues, the protection of human rights and freedoms, and the fight against the global pandemic. The need to strengthen the work of the OSCE through closer coordination and cooperation, improved strategic planning and openness to reform was emphasized.

Speaking at the meeting, the Minister of foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan confirmed our country's commitment to multi-faceted cooperation with the OSCE. The participants were presented with concrete proposals for improving cooperation on the OSCE platform, in particular in the field of social, economic, environmental and energy security.

"Our country will continue to make every effort to establish the principles of international law, the ideals of humanism, justice, tolerance, and mutual respect as factors that determine modern relations between States," Meredov said.

In his speech, the foreign Minister also reflected the vision of the Turkmen leadership of the security concept.

"They are based on the principle of integrity and indivisibility of security, which means for us the continuity and interdependence of its elements such as political, economic, food, environmental and other types of security,"      R. Meredov said.

Speaking about the negative consequences of the global pandemic and the state of security in the world, the foreign Minister of Turkmenistan suggested considering the possibility of preparing a Unified OSCE security strategy – a new international legal mechanism aimed at resolving a number of interrelated political, socio-economic and humanitarian issues.

In this context, the importance of restoring trust in international politics was emphasized, and the UN General Assembly resolution was highlighted, according to which, at the initiative of Turkmenistan, 2021 was declared the International year of peace and trust. Turkmenistan plans to host an international forum of peace and trust, which "will help to outline ways to fully and comprehensively establish a culture of peace and trust in international relations as the basis for a strong and stable security system," R. Meredov said.

The speaker also noted the uniqueness and effectiveness of Turkmenistan's policy of permanent Neutrality, which calls for equal, respectful and mutually beneficial international partnership. The Turkmen delegation expressed its readiness to take an active part in the development of new concepts and strategies in the field of peace-building and peacemaking, using its experience of positive neutrality.

It was also noted that the OSCE and Turkmenistan support combining efforts to address current issues in the field of ecology and environmental protection, rational use of water and natural resources in General, as well as problems related to climate change.

In this context, a proposal was made to prepare a comprehensive environmental Program of the OSCE, which will help to specify the Organization's priorities in the environmental sphere.

Other international initiatives of Turkmenistan are aimed, in particular, at establishing an international energy dialogue within the framework of the OSCE and jointly developing the most effective and efficient mechanisms for regional and global energy security, as well as creating a system of sustainable transport as the most important factors for dynamic socio-economic development in the globalized world economy.
In this regard, the expediency of the proposal of the Turkmen side to create specialized structures of the OSCE – the Council on sustainable energy and the Commission on transport policy was once again emphasized.

Recall that in the coming 2021, Turkmenistan and the OSCE Center in Ashgabat have planned to implement 68 joint projects, of which 37 are in the political sphere, 13 are in the economic sphere, and 18 projects are in the humanitarian field, in particular, in the fields of education, science and culture.