On 12 December 2025, Ashgabat hosted a high-level International Forum dedicated to the International Year of Peace and Trust (2025), International Day of Neutrality, and the 30th Anniversary of the Permanent Neutrality of Turkmenistan.
President Serdar Berdimuhamedov inaugurated the forum, which convened the leaders of all five Central Asian States, together with leaders from the neighboring regions and other parts of the world. Participants also included high-level officials of the United Nations, the OSCE, the SCO and the CICA, as well as senior representatives of other international and regional organizations, and UN member states.
At the plenary session entitled “Peace and Trust: Unity of Goals for a Sustainable Future”, chaired by the National Leader of the Turkmen people and Chairman of Halk Maslahaty, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Kaha Imnadze, underlined that over the past three decades Turkmenistan has demonstrated in practice the effectiveness of its model of positive neutrality. Turkmenistan has significantly contributed to shaping Central Asia as a Zone of Peace, Trust and Cooperation, through its commitment to peaceful dialogue, humanitarian engagement and multilateral solutions, actively promoting initiatives on establishing a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone and on developing major regional infrastructural projects.
The Special Representative has added that Turkmenistan’s Neutral Status also served as a determining factor for opening the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia in Ashgabat in 2007-the first UN instrument of its kind for conflict prevention at the regional level.
Several proposals were put forward during the high-level Forum, including the establishment of a University of Peace and Trust in Ashgabat and the use of Turkmenistan’s neutral status as a practical platform for developing approaches to dialogue, compromise and reconciliation.
