OREANDA-NEWS. April 22, 2009. Ashgabat hospitably greets foreign high-ranking officials and government delegations arriving from dozens of the countries in the Turkmen capital to take part in the international high-level conference on the Reliable and Stable Transit of Energy and Its Role in Ensuring Sustainable Development and International Cooperation.

The choice of the Turkmen capital to host this forum, which has gained the status of an event of global importance secured by the relevant UN Resolution, testifies to Turkmenistan’s high prestige on the world arena and vividly marks international recognition of its contribution to maintaining the climate of mutual understanding and confidence on the planet, building the bridges of friendship and cooperation among different peoples worldwide. It is based on global support of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s balanced and prudent policy aimed at placing Turkmenistan’s profound peacemaking and economic potential at the service of peace, stability and social and economic progress.

The representation at the conference testifies to the topicality of the issues placed on its agenda. These include Sha Zukang, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, OSCE Secretary General, Andre Mernier, the Secretary General of the Energy Charter Secretariat, Khurshid Anwar, Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organisation, Bolat Nurgaliev, Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Anatoliy Dron, Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee, CIS Executive Secretary, the high-ranking officials of the European Union, the Islamic Development Bank and other international organisations, the heads of the governments, foreign and energy ministries of a number of the foreign states, notable politicians, scientists and international experts.

Over 100 leading international companies including such ‘heavyweights’ of world oil and gas business as Total, Chevron Corporation, Gazprom, OMV have applied for the participation in the conference.

In a word, this conference in Ashgabat has every objective reason to become the reference point of the international dialogue on various aspects of energy cooperation, the starting line to build the flexible and effective mechanism that responds to the modern realities and enables to ensure the fulfillment of the international agreements on production and consumption of energy resources, transit of energy to international markets, strict compliance with the commitments undertaken by the parties to the international treaties and large-scale energy projects.

In this regard President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasizes that Turkmenistan stands for that the energy related issues depends on in no way the political, economic and other problems spontaneously emerging in the world. The Turkmen leader says that the Turkmen state endeavours to build the global system of cooperation pursuing mutual interests and based on financial viability and healthy competitiveness. All endeavours should have the solid legal foundation.

Non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, enhancement of international and regional cooperation is the core of Turkmenistan’s foreign policy doctrine that responding to any challenge of the modern world is filled with a new content with every passing year. The need to make Turkmenistan’s energy policy systematic, fundamental that is an essential component of the domestic and foreign policies of the Turkmen state underlay the recent decision of the President of Turkmenistan to establish the Interagency working group for energy diplomacy that is responsible for further intensifying international energy cooperation, conducting he systematic analysis of the current process on global energy market, drafting the recommendations and proposals on the implementation of the national energy strategy.

Turkmenistan with the high status of the neutral state and, what is more significance, one of the world’s energy producers can take pride in the fact that it continues to profoundly contribute to implementing the global doctrine of humanism and sustainable development. The opening of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy in Central Asia in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan’s more active participation in the activities of the UN, CIS, ECO and other international organisations blended well with Turkmenistan’s endeavours to achieve global peace, stability and security which are conditioned by the national traditions of the Turkmen people, the geopolitical location and abundant natural resources. Assistance provided by Turkmenistan to neighbouring Afghanistan in establishing peace and cohesion in the Afghani land is quite illustrative in this regard.

The initiative to draft the Special UN convention in the reliable and stable transit of energy, other proposals and concrete projects aimed at creating the common trade and economic, energy, transport and communication, humanitarian environment on the Eurasian continent put forward by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov in recent years including construction of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline, the Caspian gas pipeline, the Trans-Afghani gas pipeline and Trans-Caspian gas pipeline are the concrete steps to implement Turkmenistan’s multifaceted diplomacy and its energy policy. There is no alternative to this diplomacy – the diplomacy of peace, conflict prevention, search for the balance of interests on the world arena.