AKIPRESS.COM - Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Assistant Administrator and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent states Cihan Sultanoglu visited Turkmenistan on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Permanent Neutrality of the country.

Ms. Sultanoglu held high-level meetings with the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, Deputy Prime Ministers Rashid Meredov, Byashimmyrat Hodjamammedov, Esenmyrat Orazgeldyev.

The Director of UNDP's Regional Bureau also took part in the International Conference “The Policy of Neutrality: International Cooperation for Peace, Security and Development” held on 12 December 2015, where she moderated the third plenary session on “Prospects of international humanitarian cooperation in the framework of sustainable development”.

During the meetings, Ms. Sultanoglu discussed the cooperation between UNDP and the Government of Turkmenistan, Turkmenistan’s growing economy and its upper middle income status. Parties also considered the new UNDP country programme for 2016-2020 and its financing modalities, in particular taking bilateral partnership to the next level, whereby the Government would increasingly provide financial support for UNDP cooperation.

The UN Assistant Secretary-General stressed that the UN welcomes and appreciates the initiatives proposed by the President of Turkmenistan in New York at the Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015.