OREANDA-NEWS. December 4, 2008. The Platform for Cooperation: Environment and Water Resources was the major agenda item of the European Union-Central Asia High Level Meeting which was held in the Turkmen capital.

The representative forum organized by the Government of Turkmenistan and Italy – EU Coordinator for Environment and Water Resources brought together the delegations from five Central Asian countries, the experts of the European Commission and the EU member states including Germany, France, Romania.

Welcoming participants of the international forums in Ashgabat President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov focused on the significant importance of the conference and expressed belief that constructive discussions and exchange of views would promote creating the conditions conducive to raising the more comprehensive awareness of the environmental and water problems faced by the region, harmonizing the positions and views on the solutions to these problems and further development of effective co-operation.

Thanking the Turkmen partners for taking an active stand on the joint approaches to global challenges and problems the conference participants highly appreciated Turkmenistan’s new international initiatives including those on efficient use of water resources in the region that Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov had put forward during the meeting of the Central Asia leaders in the framework of the CIS Summit in Bishkek. It was noted that the meeting of the Central Asian leaders in Bishkek this October vividly demonstrated their endeavours to maintain the sincere and constructive dialogue as well as willingness to active collaborate on the basis of equality, mutual respect, well-balanced interests and universally recognized norms and principles of international law.

Speaking at the conference Special Envoy of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Central Asia Mr. Paolo Serpi noted that providing assistance to the countries of the region in tackling the current transboundary problems including those related to water and land resources management was a priority of the EU Strategy for Central Asia. In this regard emphasis was put on the special role of the environmental conventions including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on the Protection of the Environment for Sustainable Development of Central Asia that had laid the solid foundation for the fruitful dialogue.

Presenting the reports on the perspectives and major trends in future co-operation the representatives of the EU member states, the European Commission and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe noted that the Central Asian region with the rich natural and energy potential attracted more often the attention of the international community in the context of environmental security and sustainable development. The Turkmen capital had been chosen the venue for the large regional meeting not by chance. Having gained the high international reputation Turkmenistan viewed the environmental issues as a priority of the national policy.

The experts from the Central Asian countries were unanimous that from the first years of independence Turkmenistan demonstrated the very responsible approach to most effective nature management and protection of the environment being guided by the provisions of the UN conventions and programme it had ratified. To date the country had accumulated the profound experience in designing and implementing the large-scale programmes and projects to protect the environment and efficiently use natural resources.

Focusing on the urgency of the issues under discussion and the necessity of further jointly searching the solutions to urgent problems the partners called for further active co-operation and continuation of such meetings which allowed working out the most effective approaches to co-operation in the interests of global peace and sustainable development.