Statement by H.E. Mr. Rashid Meredov, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan

Dear Delegates,

First of all, on behalf of the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov I would like to express our gratitude to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Under Secretary General Babatunde Osotimehin for the invitation to take part in the work of the Special Session of the General Assembly in connection with the follow-up to the International Conference on Population and Development for the post-2014 period.

Convening of the present Special session is a clear testimony of the growing importance of population issues in our time. It should be specially emphasized that our forum is taking place during the year when we mark the 20-th anniversary since the adoption of the Programme of Action that was approved in 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. Today we have a chance to review its implementation and once again to affirm the effectiveness of this large-scale Programme in the context of the implementation of its goals and objectives by all members states of the United Nations.  

We have passed the decisive stage in the implementation of the Programme and nowadays sit calls for a thorough and substantive examination of the work done, assessment of its preliminary results, elaboration of new plans and setting of benchmarks for the future.

In this context we believe that first of all it is necessary to note that during the past 20 years member states of the United Nations as well as the Organization itself have accumulated a vast experience of work in practical implementation of the tasks in the field of population and development activities and that substantive and tangible results have been achieved in this regard.

Decisions that have been adopted at the UN Rio+20 Conference, sixth Asia and Pacific Population Conference held in Bangkok in September 2013 and International Conference on Population and Development during the post-2014 period held in Noordwijik (the Netherlands) in July last year as well as at other international forums have laid the basis for moving forward in the field of population and development by ensuring progress of our joint efforts and making us confident that the goals set will be achieved. We have all the reasons to say that UN strategy in this regard is correct and well-defined.

Furthermore, it is our view that the Special Session is also relevant because it deals with the important issues that confront the international community while it is implementing its obligations in the field of population and development. Those issues include public health, education, gender equality, international migration and a number of other issues directly related to the problems of population and development. Those issues are part and parcel of the sustainable development goals and their formulation is a matter for our joint work within the framework of consultations carried out at the United Nations with a view to preparing the development agenda for the post-2014 period.

Our approach to this work should be comprehensive and all-embracing but nonetheless it should be extremely realistic, substantive and purpose-oriented; it should also be based on the compatibility between specific requirements of individual states and regions and world-wide trends.

In this regard we highly value the decision taken by the United Nations to launch the mechanism of national consultations with respect to the formulation of the post-2014 agenda and Turkmenistan took an active part in those consultations.

In January 2013 following the initiative of Turkmenistan’s President our country established a Joint Turkmenistan-United Nations Working Group whose main task is to prepare and present its proposals regarding the new development agenda to the appropriate United Nations bodies.

In addition to this as a member of the ECOSOC and UN Commission on Population and Development Turkmenistan plays a tangible role in implementing the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development. While presenting our vision of objective requirements and prospects we proceed from clearly defined priorities. Their goal is to tap to the fullest extent possible the potential of the state and society in solving the most important economic and social tasks aimed at implementing the objectives of the Programme and introducing the highest standards of morality and culture as the main criteria of development.

It is precisely those goals that we kept in sight when we undertook radical transformation of our economic and social spheres by launching large-scale national programmes in the spheres of public health, maternity and childhood protection and in many other spheres. In this regard I would like to specially emphasize close interaction between the government of Turkmenistan and specialized agencies and institutions of the United Nations in practical implementation of joint population and development projects.

For example, since 1992 our Government and UN Population Fund have implemented a whole range of joint activities. Such coordinated actions were based on programmes developed at the national level and bi-lateral documents signed with UNFPA which reflected specific measures and actions aimed at the implementation of long-term strategies in the sphere of population. Thus, considerable success has been achieved in improving the standards of living of the population in accordance with the five-year country programmes signed by the Government of Turkmenistan and UNFPA.

In this regard it is necessary to specifically mention achievements in the field of public health. Turkmenistan was one of the first countries that adopted the National Reproductive Health Programme. Expansion and strengthening of the reproductive health care system at all levels in our country has become one of its main achievements. 

By working jointly with the UNDP, UNFPA and other UN agencies we systematically work towards ensuring gender equality which is one of the major components of the Programme of Action on Population. We have achieved substantive results in this area.

Finding a solution to the issues of international migration is one of the most important problems in the sphere of population. As a party to major UN conventions in this field Turkmenistan has taken a number of practical steps towards safeguarding the rights of migrants, refugees and stateless persons. In this connection we have accumulated a vast and positive experience of work on practical implementation of United Nations multilateral instruments which is used by many other countries. While continuing to carry on with this humanitarian work nowadays our country intends to concentrate its efforts on such complex but highly important issues as migration and public health, migration and emergencies and migration and human trafficking.

Esteemed Mr. President,

Dear Participants,

By determining our approaches toward follow-up activities in connection with the Programme of Action on Population and Development for the post-2014 period we are convinced that its effective implementation can be possible only on the basis of our consolidated multilateral efforts with the United Nations playing a leading role.  

In this connection we believe that today vast vistas open ahead of us that will allow us to enhance our cooperation with the United Nations specialized entities involving international financial and economic institutions and regional organizations and associations. All this objectively facilitates the formation of a new positive atmosphere which is necessary for broad-based multilateral interaction and creation of appropriate conditions for elaborating joint constructive ideas and models of international cooperation.  

Proceeding from the above-mentioned proposals Turkmenistan supports the common strategy on population and development elaborated within the United Nations and believes that our joint future activities on its implementation will become a real consolidating factor of global long-term politics.

Thank you for your attention.