OREANDA-NEWS. April 28, 2009. Today President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has left for Almaty at the invitation of President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev to attend the meeting of the leaders of the founder states of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS).

The IFAS was established in 1993 by the decision of five Central Asian leaders to finance the joint regional projects and programmes to save the Aral Sea and elaborate the practical measures to rehabilitate the environment and implement the joint social and economic programmes in the Aral Sea basin. The Fund is chaired on a rotary basis. The Republic of Kazakhstan will chair the IFAS for the next three years.

Turkmenistan that chaired the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea actively contributes to elaborating the common regional action strategy to save the Aral Sea and achieve environmental security as an essential factor of sustainable development of the region, the welfare of local population. Implementing the large-scale national programmes Turkmenistan takes a complex of the task-oriented measures to improve the social and ecological conditions in the Aral Sea basin, in particular Dashoguz Velayat, which is exposed most of all to the adverse impact of the ecological crisis. The urgent problems in supplying the population with clean drinking water and controlling salinization of agricultural fields are solve din the northern region of the country over many years.

The forum participants – the Central Asian leaders intend to consider the key trends in cooperation to address the Aral Sea crisis and the new approaches to efficient and well-balanced management of water resources in the Central Asian region. The ways to intensify cooperation with the large international organisations, financial institutions and donors will be the focus of the summit.

Pursuing the policy of openness and constructive cooperation with all partners concerned, particular with the neighbouring states, Turkmenistan attaches primary importance to the dialogue on water and energy problems. The important international initiatives put forward by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov at the meeting of the Central Asian leaders in Bishkek last year providing for collaboration under the aegis and with the involvement of the United Nations are aimed at developing this cooperation. At the suggestion of the Turkmen leader Miroslav Jenca, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Central Asia, Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy in Central Asia will attend the meeting.

In the framework of the Almaty summit the President of Turkmenistan is expected to hold a series of the bilateral top level talks to discuss the ways of cooperation on other important aspects of regional partnership.