National Flag of Uzbekistan hoisted in front of the UN headquarters in New York on March 2, 1992, announcing to the world that the young independent republic became a full member of the United Nations, reaffirming its commitment to the ideals of humanity, unity and ensure the human rights and freedoms.
Uzbekistan cooperates with the UN and its specialized agencies in various areas over 24 years. The main priorities of cooperation is the fight against modern threats and challenges to security, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the solution of environmental problems, in particular, the mitigation of the Aral Sea crisis, socio economic development, protection and promotion of human rights.
Uzbekistan has implemented dozens of national programs, projects, taken pursuant to the major international United Nations documents.
The UN General Assembly adopted the UN Millennium Declaration on September 8, 2000, which defined the Millennium Development Goals. During the period of implementation of the MDGs Uzbekistan successfully completed its plan of action. A significant event was the participation of the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov at the plenary session of the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals held in September 2010 in New York. The Head of State expressed deep support for the action plan to accelerate progress towards the MDGs and the intention to take an active part in achieving them. Uzbekistan sees its most important perspective, the President stressed, in joining the ranks of developed countries in the world, the continuation and deepening of political, economic reforms and modernization of the country, formation of civil society and on this basis, providing a decent life for its citizens.
Republic has achieved the MDGs in such areas as ensuring access to education, health care, reducing maternal and child mortality, food security and others.
Agenda in the field of sustainable development for the period till 2030 entered into force on January 1, 2016 formally. Sustainable Development Goals, adopted unanimously by all 193 countries – UN members, include all three pillars of sustainable development – social, economic and environmental, as well as peace and justice issues.
Uzbekistan is a party to all major international agreements and treaties on disarmament and non-proliferation. Actively contributes to UN efforts to ensure global and regional security. An important contribution in this direction was the initiative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on creation in Central Asia of nuclear weapons zone free. The Central Asian states signed the Treaty on CANWFZ, which took a firm place in the international disarmament agenda.
As a party to all 13 United Nations conventions on combating terrorism, Uzbekistan put forward the major initiatives aimed at consolidating the international community’s efforts in the area.
In this context, Uzbekistan welcomes the work of the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee and fully supports its efforts to strengthen the capacity of States – members of the organization to confront this evil. It is obvious that the creation of a committee is also the result of by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov’s initiative to establish an international center for combating terrorism, voiced at the OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999.
It must be emphasized that the cooperation in the field of regional security and stability is an important area of cooperation between Uzbekistan and the UN. In this context, the United Nations appreciates Uzbekistan’s efforts to establish peace and stability in Afghanistan.
Cooperation of Uzbekistan – UN also covers ecology and environmental issues. In the sphere the most important issue for Uzbekistan is the problem of the Aral Sea. Uzbekistan stands for increasing the participation of UN agencies in mitigating the consequences of the Aral disaster.
One of the most important documents, received overwhelming support in the 63th session of the UN General Assembly, was a resolution “Granting of observer status to the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea in the General Assembly”, which was co-written by Uzbekistan.
Today Uzbekistan is actively cooperating with the World Health Organization, the UN Population Fund, United Nations Development Programme, UNESCO, UNICEF, the Food and Agriculture Organization and other UN agencies, whose purpose is entirely consistent with the aspirations of the independent Republic of Uzbekistan.
