By Trend

Turkmenistan takes effective measures against the spread of COVID-10, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Central Asia, head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia Natalia Gherman told SNG FM online radio, Trend reports.

The activities of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia was discussed during a recent telephone conversation between President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres.

“I am deeply grateful to the president of Turkmenistan and the Secretary-General of UN for the attention they have paid to the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia during a telephone conversation held on April 22 of this year. In this conversation, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that Turkmenistan as a country hosting the UNRCCA headquarters, will continue to actively support the mission and its regional projects and programmes in Central Asia.”

“We continue to work in priority areas, such as supporting regional initiatives aimed at close cooperation in Central Asia; combating violent extremism and terrorism; addressing cross-border water use issues; and enhancing the role of youth and women in preventive diplomacy. These strategic priorities have not lost their significance today, when all the attention of the world community is focused on fighting the pandemic, but on the contrary have become more important in the current context.”

Strategic priorities of the Regional Center are discussed at the annual meetings of deputy foreign ministers of Central Asian countries. Given the increasing interaction between the Central Asian countries and Afghanistan, in recent years, these meetings have been held with the participation of the deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan in the 5+1 format. The next meeting in this format under the auspices of the UNCCA is planned to be held at the end of this year.

“If we talk about specific examples of our current activities in Turkmenistan – this is expert assistance in developing an action Plan for the implementation of the national strategy of Turkmenistan for preventing violent extremism and countering terrorism from 2020 through 2024, which was implemented by the Regional center and the UN counter-terrorism office,” she added.