NEUTRALITY PHENOMENON: PROMOTING PROGRESS AND GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP.

The year 2020 bears special significance to Turkmenistan. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of permanent neutrality means a great deal to the Turkmen nation. The unique status has been recognized twice by the world community through the UN General Assembly Resolutions, 50/80A: 'Permanent neutrality of Turkmenistan' on the 12th of December 1995 which was reaffirmed on the 3rd of June 2015 (69/285). These two resolutions are not merely symbolic acts by the UN Members states. They embody the unanimous recognition by the largest-ever international community of the value of Turkmenistan's Neutrality and of the true benefit it brings to stability, peace and global partnership. The neutrality is a well-elaborated concept that embodies an organic combination of the core principles of international law and diplomacy.

It also incorporates invaluable experience in peace dialogue and the implementation of preventive measures based on the promotion and implementation of global initiatives aimed at strengthening the international collaboration.

Turkmenistan made the first official declaration of neutrality policy in the 1992 Helsinki summit of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. In 1995 in the Islamabad summit of a regional organization - the Economic Cooperation Organization - Turkmenistan's initiative to declare neutrality was welcomed by the member countries. In October of 1995, Turkmenistan became a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and in the Cartagena declaration the member countries supported Turkmenistan's foreign policy choice. On 12 December, 1995 Turkmenistan received the support of 185 states in the United Nations General Assembly and the historic document was adopted on "Permanent Neutrality of Turkmenistan".

In 2015 we celebrated the 20th anniversary of our neutrality status and the United Nations General Assembly reaffirmed its support for our choice. In 2017 the United Nations proclaimed 12 December as International Day of Neutrality. And today we are approaching a milestone jubilee, the 25th anniversary of the permanent neutrality of Turkmenistan. Ever since its declaration, neutrality policy has guided our national interests in the global arena.

On December 27, 1995, along with the Constitutional Law on the Permanent Neutrality of Turkmenistan, the "Concept of the Foreign Policy of Turkmenistan as a Neutral State" has been adopted. The concept covers three fundamental directions of national foreign policy: political...