UN General Assembly
2014

Today I would like to address some of the most important issues on the General Assembly’s agenda. First are the growing regional and international security challenges and threats, escalating conflicts and wars, and the aggravation of geopolitical confrontations between large centres of power, which could produce new areas of tension in the world and make it more difficult to address the continuing global financial and economic crisis. All those elements are cause for serious alarm and deep concern. Uzbekistan firmly believes that such acute contradictions and confrontations can be tackled only through a political path and peaceful means, in strict observance of the fundamental principles of international law enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. The persisting instability in Afghanistan, which is exhibiting a tendency to escalate further, poses a serious threat to stability and security in Central Asia and the greater region. In the situation currently unfolding, the accelerated drawdown of the International Security Assistance Force may turn out to be counterproductive, and that could further complicate the state of affairs in Afghanistan.