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Kyrgyz Republic hosts high-level meeting on sustainable mountain development in New York

25.09.2022

A high-level meeting on sustainable mountain development was organized by the delegation of the Kyrgyz Republic jointly with the Mountain Partnership Secretariat of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the eve of the seventy-seventh session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on 19 September 2022 in New York. The event was conducted to unite the efforts of mountain countries to advocate for the mountain agenda in the international arena.

Over 90 delegates from all over the world including foreign ministers of Andorra, Armenia, Bhutan, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Malawi, Nicaragua, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, as well as senior representatives of Argentina and Italy attended the meeting. They commended the initiative of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Mountain Partnership Secretariat to hold this meeting and expressed their support for the efforts of the Kyrgyz Republic to promote the interests of mountain countries.

Delegates from such UN agencies as FAO, the UN Environment Programme, UN Development Programme, UN Industrial Development Organization, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Bank, Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States and the Secretary-General of the Organization of Turkic States attended the meeting.

The event was moderated by Ambassador Nurlan Aitmurzaev, special envoy of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic on mountain issues, and by Rosalaura Romeo of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat. The delegates promised their full support to advocate for the interests of mountain countries in the relevant UN processes. This support was also expressed by the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohamed, and the FAO Director-General, Qu Dongyu.

This high-level meeting marks a milestone event within the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development 2022, declared by the UN at the initiative of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, Sadyr Zhaparov. It was conducted to support a draft resolution on sustainable mountain development at the UN General Assembly to declare 2023-2027 as the “Five years of action for the development of mountain regions”.

The planned resolution will commit the next five years to promote a wide range of initiatives dedicated to supporting the sustainable development of mountains and the livelihoods of mountain people, including adaptation to climate change, disaster risk management, health care development in mountain countries, and sustainable access of mountain communities to services.

Read the outcome document
Learn more about the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development 2022

News by Permanent Mission of the Kyrgyz Republic to the UN

Photo by Nazik Moldottasheva