OREANDA-NEWS. December 23, 2008.   President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov chaired a sitting of the Cabinet of Ministers. The central agenda item was the historic decision of the United Nations Organization on the Turkmen leader’s initiative to concert global efforts to ensure security of transnational pipeline infrastructure.

Opening the sitting – the last one in 2008 and informing that this good news had just come from the New York Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov gave the floor to Vice Premier, Minister of Foreign Affairs R. Meredov.

The Minister reported that the UN General Assembly session with a consensus of 192 states adopted the Resolution on the Reliable and Stable Transit of Energy and Its Role in Ensuring the Sustainable Development and International Cooperation. It was noted that the document first proposed by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov about a year ago became an event of exceptional importance for facilitating global efforts to tackle such challenge as ensuring economic, environmental and food security.

The Minister emphasized that the consistent and constructive policy pursued by Turkmenistan to implement this initiative was viewed worldwide as an important step towards providing the firm guarantees of reliability and stability of transport of energy and a worthy contribution to global progress.

Vice Premier T. Tagiev noted that Turkmen oil and gas industry workers and the Turkmen people were very proud that again the policy of Turkmenistan and its leader had been highly appreciated by the world community. The Vice Premier focused on the significance of the UN Resolution for the further development of Turkmenistan’s oil and gas sector. The Vice Premier assured the Turkmen leader that being aware of the high responsibility increased due to the status of Turkmenistan as an initiator of the new approaches to international energy co-operation the heads and oil and gas industry workers would spare no efforts to unconditionally adhere to the commitments of Turkmenistan as one of the world’s energy producers and exporters.

Commenting on the report Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted that standing steadfast to the policy of wide international co-operation and endeavoring to place its profound resource potential at the service of the whole mankind Turkmenistan took the specific, consistent steps on this way. That was vividly illustrated by Turkmenistan’s initiative aimed at achieving energy security as an essential factor of global sustainable development and political stability. Approving the Resolution on the Reliable and Stable Transit of Energy and Its Role in Ensuring the Sustainable Development and International Cooperation by the UN General Assemble testified to the topicality and timeliness of this initiative in the context of the global economic and financial crisis. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that the world community had demonstrated the intense interest in reliable transit of energy and the willingness to concert efforts on the basis of international law norms.

The Turkmen leader noted that the considerable work had been done to draft the resolution involving dozens of expert groups from different countries, the bilateral and multilateral consultations and discussions had been held. 57 states including the neighbouring countries, five permanent UN member states, the EU member states, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine were the co-authors of the Resolution on the Reliable and Stable Transit of Energy and Its Role in Ensuring the Sustainable Development and International Cooperation. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov expressed sincere gratitude to the countries which had supported Turkmenistan’s initiative and actively contributed to drafting the UN Resolution.

The President noted that approving the Resolution by the community of nations evidenced the correctness of Turkmenistan’s foreign policy strategy based on the principles of neutrality, friendliness and constructive cooperation. The President said that it was the first step on the path of implementing Turkmenistan’s initiative and the large-scale work was to be done to draft the relevant international convention.

In conclusion Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov congratulated the participants of the sitting and the people of Turkmenistan on this outstanding achievement in its foreign policy. The Turkmen leader instructed the Vice Premiers, Minister of Foreign Affairs R. Meredov and T. Tagiev to organize and hold a high-level international conference on security of pipelines and reliable transport of energy to international markets in Ashgabat in 2009.

Touching upon the other agenda issues, in particular the results of the Bulgarian leader’s official visit to Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stated with satisfaction that Turkmenistan established the high level of the relations with the EU member states and stood ready to maintain the fruitful dialogue in both bilateral and multilateral formats. Focusing on the effectiveness of the Turkmen-Bulgarian top level talks the President expressed belief that the peoples of Turkmenistan and Bulgaria would benefit from the achievements reached in Ashgabat.

Then the Turkmen leader touched upon the preparations for the coming winter holidays. Noting that the New Year was one of the favourite holidays of the Turkmen people the President gave instructions to the relevant high-ranking officials to create the most comfortable conditions for the people so that they could celebrate this holiday in good spirits together with their families and friends. The President suggested carrying over a day off from Sunday, January 4th to Friday, January 2nd so that the people could have the three-day holiday. The President signed the Decree

The President demanded that the relevant services, institutions and establishments would ensure the uninterrupted and effective work during the holidays. In this regard the President instructed Vice Premier, Chairman of the State Emergency Response Commission N. Shaguliev and Vice Premier H. Saparliev to hold the meetings with the high-ranking officials of the ministries and departments under their supervision and draft the duty chart.