Recently, the countries in the region have significantly strengthened cooperation in key areas of socio-economic development of Central Asia, ensuring stability and security in the region, establishing partnership relations with extraregional states, organizations and associations. The Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Central Asian states regularly hold five-party consultations that makes it possible to coordinate the steps taken on the world stage more efficiently and to better understand each other's goals and interests. Turkmenistan welcomes this practice, believing that it should be continued, expanding the range and topics of such meetings.
This is especially important in the context of uniting the efforts of our states to ensure stability and security in the region, create conditions for its accelerated economic integration into global processes, and implement large-scale projects with the participation of foreign investors.
Central Asia is the intersection of Eurasian transport routes and energy flows, the world's reservoir of hydrocarbon resources. Therefore, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov puts forward the creation of a modern regional infrastructure of transport, logistics, energy and communications as the most important topic of cooperation.
It is obvious that the active development of external relations stands as an important factor. Central Asian countries closely work with the countries of the European Union, the United States, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Other countries demonstrate the interest in developing cooperation with the Central Asian countries as well. In this regard, the current meeting allows specifying the areas of cooperation with international structures and individual states.
“The settlement of the situation in Afghanistan is an integral factor of stable, conflict-free development of the region. All of us are interested in achieving peace and harmony in Afghanistan. It is obvious that it can be achieved only by peaceful, political means”, emphasizes President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
Turkmenistan considers countering environmental risks as another priority vector of the five-party partnership. Effective coordination of common efforts will help to preserve the unique nature of Central Asia, to ensure high standards of quality of life of the population. The countries of the region also intend to give new impetus to the activities of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea. In particular, Turkmenistan supports the establishment of effective cooperation between IFAS and the UN and other international structures.
Water resources are the common heritage of the peoples of Central Asia and access to them is a fundamental human right. The balanced and responsible approaches, adherence to the principles of justice and consideration of each other's interests are the key to successful cooperation in water use, implementation of national and regional sustainable development plans, and ensuring food security.
Humanitarian cooperation, popularization of the historical heritage of the peoples of Central Asia, creation of conditions for a wide cultural exchange in the region are also among the key tasks of cooperation between the Central Asian states.
