SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF TURKMENISTAN SERDAR BERDIMUHAMEDOV AT THE CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT OF LANDLOCKED DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Dear heads of delegations,

Ladies and gentlemen.

I warmly welcome you and express my gratitude for the accepted invitation to participate in the Ministerial Transport Conference for landlocked developing countries, convened at the initiative of Turkmenistan under the auspices of the United Nations. 

Today, the heads of transport agencies from more than 30 states represented at this forum, dozens of delegations of international organizations, financial institutions and expert communities are participating in the work of this conference, which speaks of the importance of this session, relevance and timeliness of its convening. And surely, such a representative composition of participants is evidence of respect for Turkmenistan, recognition of its contribution to the process of global cooperation in the transport sector.

An analysis of modern processes, the prevailing trends in the global economy convincingly shows that development of transport and communications is becoming increasingly important and decisive.

Optimization of transport and transit routes, construction of a modern infrastructure for the delivery of raw materials and finished goods is becoming a key integrating factor, especially for states that do not have direct access to sea terminals.

Today, against the backdrop of a difficult situation in worldwide production, it is the transport and communication component that can give the necessary impetus to economic relations, stimulate investment activity, and to some extent, give new meaning to the entire system of global geo-economics.

In this context, the potential of new transport and transit hubs is enormous, they involve vast areas and human resources, and significant investments are made. All this creates opportunities for transformation of the transport segment into one of the drivers for the development of global economy, protecting it from distortion, recession and gaps in the development pace between the countries and regions. 

Turkmenistan is convinced that the transport architecture of 21 century is the architecture of an integration breakthrough, the connection of spaces, regions, as well as of industrial, resource and human capacity. The future belongs to a combined transport communication system, with access to the largest international and regional sea, river, road, railroad and air hubs, their best combination and the use of the advantages of each of them. 

Dear participants,

Coronavirus pandemic has affected almost all states, had a negative impact on the development of the world economic relations. The landlocked developing countries, arguably, turned out to be the most vulnerable, from the point of view of the transport component. 

Under these circumstances there is an urgent need to consolidate our efforts, to concentrate them on achieving of prompt and obvious results.

One of the most important directions in this respect is a formulation of common principles of work within the frames of the United Nations. In our opinion, transport issue should take their permanent and firm place on the UN agenda as a separate line of activity of the World Organization. The active policy of Turkmenistan is particularly aimed at giving the dialogue
on transport issues a systematic and consistent character.

As it is known, our country initiated the First Global Conference on Sustainable Transport, held in Ashgabat in November 2016. 

Turkmenistan has also initiated key resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly
on sustainable transport and development of international cooperation in transport sphere, adopted in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2021. It is indicative that these documents were adopted unanimously with the co-authorship of many states.

Today, it can be confidently stated that the dialogue on the development of global transport, particularly at the highest level, has begun, and assumes furthermore ever-increasing mindful and integral form, which is participated by the states, companies, international institutions and organizations. 

Being rightly proud of these successes, Turkmenistan does not intend to slow down the pace of its proactive participation in the global transport dialogue. Moreover, our country is ready for its intensification and expansion, saturation with new certain projects and plans.

In this context, I propose to consider the establishment of special working group at the UN, which would purposefully defend the interests of landlocked developing countries in the transport sector, and conduct a systematic work with the relevant UN agencies for this purpose.

We also consider it to be in due time to start drafting a General Assembly resolution «On enhancing the role of landlocked developing countries in the development and strengthening of global transport cooperation». It seems that such a document could give a substantive impetus to the promotion of the interests of our states, to show the significance and understanding of appropriate issues, and the commitment of the world community to their solution. Turkmenistan stands ready to proceed with the preparations
of this document, and open for all kinds of constructive proposals and recommendations.

We do hope for the support of given initiatives. 

Dear participants,

The Ashgabat process is an essential and integral part of the global transport agenda. It is designed to ensure the logic and sequence of further cooperation in the field of global transport, to affirm the legitimate interests of landlocked developing countries, and to specify the goals and objectives of our collaboration. 

During this Conference you need to determine the strategic guidelines and integration priorities into the global transport flows on an equal, mutually beneficial and genuinely partnership basis.

I have no doubt that the decisions and proposals adopted by current forum will lay down a basis for the preparation of the Third UN Conference on landlocked developing countries, scheduled for 2024.

Turkmenistan will strongly strive for achieving of the set goals together with the partners and supporters. 

I sincerely wish all the participants of the Conference successful and fruitful work.

Thanks for your attention.