Turkmenistan is now the former place of service of Dmitry Shlapachenko, the ex-UN coordinator in the country, who took up the post of permanent UN coordinator in Azerbaijan. On September 2, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, presented ten certificates.

According to AZERTAJ, during the meeting, the parties discussed cooperation between Azerbaijan and the UN, including the holding of major events in Baku - COP29 and the World Forum on Urban Development - as well as issues of post-conflict reconstruction of Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur, demining territories and environmental issues, in particular, the state of transboundary rivers in the South Caucasus and the shallowing of the Caspian Sea. Shlapachenko said that in the near future he will visit Karabakh, where a major event is planned to be held at Karabakh University on the occasion of UN Day.

Dmitriy Shlapachenko has held the post of permanent coordinator of the UN in Turkmenistan since July 2021 - he presented his credentials to President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on August 24 of the same year. The diplomat completed his mission in Ashgabat on June 30, 2026, having a farewell meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Rashid Meredov, who thanked him for his contribution to the development of the partnership between Turkmenistan and the UN. A citizen of Ukraine, he has more than 25 years of experience in the field of international relations and peace-building: before his appointment to Ashgabat, he held senior positions in the UN structures in Iraq, Kosovo, Somalia, Tajikistan, Vienna and New York, where he oversaw the Horn of Africa and the work of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan. The diplomat holds degrees in international journalism and international relations from Kyiv University, Central European University in Budapest and the London School of Economics.