Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan Propose To Establish UN?s Regional Centers In Their Capitals
Topic: Permanent Neutrality
22 November, 2004. Saparmurat Niyazov and Islam Karimov paid a great deal of attention to issues related to enhancing the role of the UN in the Central Asian region at the talks last Friday in Bohara, the Ashgabat correspondent of Turkmenistan.ru reports. The leaders of neighboring countries spoke in favor of developing closer cooperation with this international organization and fixed this thesis in the bilateral Treaty on Friendship, Confidence Building and Development of Cooperation.

As the document says, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan “attach particular importance to the further enhancement of the role of the UN and its Security Council, the implementation of goals and principles stated in the documents of OSCE and other authoritative international organizations in avoiding and settling conflicts, dealing with issues of security and stability and confidence building.”

To achieve this goal Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan considered it necessary to establish the UN Regional Center of Preventive Diplomacy with residence in Ashgabat and the UN Central Asian Regional Information Center on Countering Transnational Crime and Drug Trafficking with residence in Tashkent.

It should be noted that President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov had earlier put forth this initiative on the establishment of the UN Regional Center of Preventive Diplomacy in Ashgabat in his letter to the Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan.

Turkmenistan.Ru