PRESS RELEASE

Turkmenistan's President makes comprehensive policy statement on the eve of the UN Millennium Summit


August 21, 2000, Washington, D.C.- As we approach the UN Millennium Summit, the newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan has run a policy article by President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov.
Each and every nation on this planet, argues the article, is in the throes of searching for successful development scenarios and identifying its role in global modern history. The Turkmen President believes that it may very well be the principal characteristic of our speech.
While giving due to the historical legacy of all countries, the Turkmen President notes that a nation's past cannot guarantee its future but merely provides momentum going forward. How effective a nation's progress is going to be depending on its ability to promptly and properly react to the challenges of the day.
Next September the heads of states in attendance at the Millennium Summit will be discussing a vast range of pressing issues. The agenda has been outlined in the UN Secretary-General's report submitted for consideration by the General Assembly. The Turkmen President notes that, while remaining a neutral state, Turkmenistan will continue to actively and closely interact with the UN on the more urgent issues of the international agenda. According to the article, Turkmenistan has made early-and thus the most difficult- steps on the road of national rebirth. Essentially Turkmenistan has begun to rebuild its sovereign history and statehood. The nation boasts an ancient and eventful history. Aware of our past, we are -once again- starting from tabula rasa, and that is why we are free from the burden of past resentment and insults, from the pressure of ideology and phobias, from political stereotypes and ethnic labels.
The President of Turkmenistan has specifically singled out globalization out of a multitude of trends and issues. Globalization is an inevitable and objective historical process. However, indicates President Niyazov, some of its aspects have caused well-justified concerns. He calls attention to the evolving trend of somewhat fatalistic conviction that there are no alternative political philosophies, to a trend towards setting a universal standard for the entire human race. The President of Turkmenistan refers in his article to the experience of the former USSR, a country that has sought to maintain an imperial state model by imposing stereotypes with no regard for national and ethnic specifics and realities.
We are convinced, says the article, that the overall progress of humanity will be driven not by blind adherence to any particular model, not by unifying the standards and principles of everyday life, but by combining ideas and philosophies. President Niyazov argues that one of the key international challenges of the day is to establish equal and equitable partnerships between nations that are currently at different levels of socio-economic, technological and industrial development. The President explains further that Turkmenistan supports the efforts of the UN Secretary-General, the UNDP and other agencies at building a completely new, discrimination-free model of interaction between nations -big and small, industrialized and agricultural; Turkmenistan praises the efforts towards broad inter-regional cooperation. Obviously, such cooperation must not be conditioned on any kind of political concessions, nor can it be achieved at the expense of any nation's sovereignty.
The President also sets forth Turkmenistan's official stance on the issue of reforming the UN, a heavily discussed item on the eve of the Millennium Summit. We in Turkmenistan, says H.E. Niyazov, support a reform of the United Nations but only as long as such reform strengthens and broadens the UN's international role. We are opposed to "dissolving" the United Nations in new supra-national structures. We are equally opposed to the UN functions being "pilfered away" and appropriated by either individual nations or groups of nations or by other agencies.
With regard to the latter President Niyazov has placed particular emphasis on the issue of Afghanistan, an issue that Turkmenistan -due to certain historical and geographic considerations- feels particularly strongly about. The President refers to the history of the long-suffering Afghan people and argues that any outside interference in the domestic Afghan conflict, and especially interference through power, is meaningless and will yield no results. Dividing the Afghans into "bad guys" and good guys" and making an exhibition out of punishing the former can only result in yet another round of bloodshed and will inflict suffering on innocent civilians. The Afghan people have suffered enough to come to appreciate the need for peace, stability and development in their country. They are prepared to voluntarily achieve national concord, explains President Niyazov. What is needed today is the goodwill on the part of influential forces outside Afghanistan. President Niyazov has assured the United Nations that the Special Mission on Afghanistan will find in Turkmenistan a reliable partner willing to work towards an Afghan settlement.
The Turkmen President indicates in his policy article that regional cooperation is increasingly important if stability and sustainable development of nations responsible for Eurasian security both along the North-South and East-West azimuths are to be achieved. Major inter-regional transport and communications projects, notes President Niyazov, are intended to bring European and Asian economies closer together, to bridge the technological gap between them and to establish an equitable system of trade and economic relations. Turkmenistan is pursuing the same goal as it seeks to bring energy resources to the international markets. The article explains that the construction of pipelines is more than just a commercially profitable undertaking. Pipeline projects are in fact social development projects of gigantic proportions that reach far beyond the national borders. Turkmenistan supports an international legal mechanism geared to satisfy the interests of energy producers, transit nations and consumers. The article refers to an initiative announced by Turkmenistan in the UN for devising an International Convention providing for the regime and operational guarantees for inter-state pipelines.
Needless to say, the relevant goals and objectives to be pursued by the UN member nations in this regard are extremely complex. Therefore, argues the Turkmen President, they will require both collective action and, at the same time, recognition of the individual responsibility of every nation. Such is the logic behind Turkmenistan's political behavior, explains President Niyazov; a logic that the people of Turkmenistan have arrived through a lot of hardship, both past and present, as they are mapping out their road into the new century and the new millennium. It is only natural, emphasizes the President, that Turkmenistan will heed the appeal by the UN Secretary-General to the nations of the world to jointly work for the 21st century to be safer and more equitable than the 20th century.