On September 23, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev addressed the 75th session of the UN General Assembly. In his address, Mirziyoyev put forward his initiatives on such issues as strengthening peace and stability, striving for sustainable development and ensuring human rights and freedoms.
For the first time, the President of Uzbekistan spoke in the Uzbek language at the UNGA session.
Starting his speech, Mirziyoyev touched upon the issue of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The world has not seen such a catastrophe for the last hundred years. It demonstrated the vulnerability of all humanity to such global threats. The current difficult and tense situation has proved the interconnectedness of all states and peoples of the world, the special importance of regular dialogue, trust and close cooperation.
We have seen how important it is to unite the efforts of all states, parliaments and civil society, strengthen the principles of common responsibility, develop the international partnership in an appropriate manner and increase the powers and role of the World Health Organization.
Our goal is to create a global system that guarantees the fundamental rights and freedoms, health and prosperity of every human being.
In this regard, we propose to develop an international code of conduct under the auspices of the United Nations on voluntary obligations of states when such pandemics occur. This document should reflect the obligations of each state before its citizens and international partners,” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
It has been emphasized that since the early days of the pandemic in Uzbekistan, all efforts and resources have been directed at curbing this dangerous disease and, most importantly, saving lives. It was noted that in order to mitigate the negative consequences of the pandemic, social protection and health care systems are being sharply strengthened, targeted assistance is being provided to the population. The government has created several funds to support the people.
The President took the opportunity to express his deep gratitude to all the friends and colleagues who provided generous assistance during the difficult times.
“We support all the efforts of the international community to effectively combat the pandemic, including the development and widespread use of essential medicines and vaccines.
We also support the proposal of Secretary-General António Guterres to hold a summit on the urgent issues of food security in the current crisis,” Shavkat Mirziyoyev added.
Mirziyoyev noted the need to ensure deep integration of Central Asia into the global economic, transport and transit corridors and proposed to establish a Regional Centre for the Development of Transport and Communications under the auspices of the United Nations.
“Today, the Central Asian states face an important strategic task. This is to ensure deep integration of our region into the global economic, transport and transit corridors,” Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.
According to the President of Uzbekistan, the countries of the region have managed to create an atmosphere of good neighborliness, mutual trust, friendship and mutual respect.
“Our common achievement is consultative summits of the Central Asian Heads of State, which was put forth as an initiative at the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly and has been regularly held since then.
Over the past four years, Uzbekistan’s bilateral trade with neighboring states has grown almost five-fold. During these days of trial our countries are standing by and not leaving one another alone,” the Uzbek leader added.
He stated that today, effective security cooperation is maintained in Central Asia.
“The United Nations Global Anti-Terrorism Strategy is being successfully implemented.
We stand up for conducting the International conference on the ten-year results and forthcoming prospects of this Joint Plan of the Regional Strategy.
As it is well-known, the ancient cultural and rich spiritual heritage of our region is of global importance.
We are ready to hold the International Forum “Central Asia at the Crossroads of World Civilizations” in the ancient city of Khiva in 2021 in cooperation with UNESCO,” Mirziyoyev said.
“We see Afghanistan as an integral part of Central Asia,” Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.
According to the leader of Uzbekistan, the Tashkent High-Level Conference on Afghanistan in March 2018 marked a new stage in the mobilization of the international community’s efforts to resolve the Afghan problem.
“We fully support the peace talks among the Afghan political forces launched this year in the city of Doha in September. We express the hope that these talks will serve for bringing in peace and stability in the long-suffering land of Afghanistan,” Mirziyoyev said. “In order to broadly involve Afghanistan in the process of economic integration in the region, we have started the implementation of major infrastructure projects such as “Surkhan-Puli Khumri” power line and construction of a railway from Mazar-i-Sharif to the seaports of the Indian Ocean.”
Uzbekistan believes that the issues of ensuring peace and stability in Afghanistan must remain a constant focus of the United Nations.
“Only together and through close cooperation, we can realize all the dreams and aspirations of the Afghan people. In this regard, it is important to work on the principle of “From instability and destruction – to peace and prosperity”.
To this end, we propose to establish a permanent UN commission on Afghanistan that would address the concerns of long-suffering Afghan people.
The main task of this Commission must be to promote and facilitate the economic and social development of Afghanistan,” Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted.
Reported by KUN (Uzbekistan).
