Uzbekistan called for a more effective United Nations and sought support for its Security Council candidacy during the General Assembly’s September 23 debate. Delivering the national address, presidential administration chief Saida Mirziyoyeva urged countries to work together despite deepening international divisions.
“Our choice is human dignity,” said Mirziyoyeva. “Openness does not mean weakness.”
Speaking in Uzbek at the Assembly’s 81st session in New York, she argued that a country’s strength should be judged by its ability to protect people’s rights and interests. The message offered a basis for cooperation beyond competing geopolitical camps, with particular emphasis on young people’s opportunities to study and shape their futures.
Image: Saida Mirziyoyeva/Telegram
A Larger Role at the UN
Mirziyoyeva sought support for Uzbekistan’s candidacy for a nonpermanent Security Council seat in 2035–2036. She also highlighted the country’s forthcoming chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement in 2027, presenting it as an opportunity to widen dialogue during a period of international tension.
She backed the secretary-general’s UN80 reform initiative and an expanded Security Council, arguing that the organization needed greater capacity to prevent conflict and implement its decisions. Her appeal was for international rules that apply consistently, rather than changing with the interests of powerful states.
That concern also ran through Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov’s address, although he focused on unilateral sanctions and their impact on developing countries. The two speeches approached the issue differently, but both sought stronger multilateral protections for states with limited influence over the restrictions and conflicts affecting them.
Kyrgyzstan has already secured its first Security Council seat for 2027–2028, giving Bishkek a vote on the sanctions and security decisions Japarov criticized.
Afghanistan and Regional Cooperation
Mirziyoyeva pointed to improving relations among neighboring Central Asian states as evidence that political will can help resolve longstanding disputes. She said disagreements over borders and water had increasingly given way to cooperation, with countries coming to see one another as partners.
She applied the same argument to Afghanistan, warning against treating the country solely as a source of danger or abandoning its people to their difficulties. Her emphasis was on giving Afghans the prospect of peaceful development.
Kazakhstan’s UN agenda also extends to Afghanistan through the regional Sustainable Development Goals center in Almaty, established to serve Central Asia and Afghanistan. Alongside its longstanding nuclear disarmament priorities, Kazakhstan is promoting cooperation on water security and has proposed an international water organization within the UN system.
Measuring Progress in People’s Lives
Mirziyoyeva linked her foreign policy message to Uzbekistan’s domestic reforms, citing economic growth and wider access to education. She said the economy had expanded from $50 billion to $147 billion over a decade and that poverty had fallen to 4%, presenting the figures as evidence of improvements in living standards.
“The true value of reforms is reflected in people’s lives. Especially in children’s lives,” she said.
She outlined forthcoming discussions with the UN Population Fund on demographic stability and human capital, and an international gathering in Samarkand in October focused on children’s well-being. She also cited stronger penalties for domestic violence and support for women’s entrepreneurship as elements of the government’s reform program.
Her account of technological change followed the same theme. She called for artificial intelligence to be developed with safeguards for human rights and accountability, placing improvements to people’s lives at the center of its use.
Water, Climate and Access to Markets
The Aral Sea provided the speech’s clearest warning about the consequences of policy failure. Mirziyoyeva described its destruction as the result of decades of damaging decisions and pointed to planting on the dried seabed and water-saving technologies as part of Uzbekistan’s response. She reiterated the goal of raising renewables’ share of electricity generation to 54% by 2030.
Water diplomacy remains a wider regional priority. Tajikistan is preparing to host the 2028 UN Water Conference in Dushanbe, while Japarov has proposed a UN-backed fund to preserve Issyk-Kul, with a promised $10 million Kyrgyz contribution.
Turkmenistan, meanwhile, has been elected to chair the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries for 2027–2028. The bureau’s composition was scheduled for endorsement at a September 24 ministerial meeting in New York. Its priorities include transport and energy connectivity, issues that bear directly on Central Asia’s ability to reach overseas markets.
Mirziyoyeva’s appeal reflected a concern shared across Central Asia: countries exposed to conflicts beyond their borders want a greater say in how those conflicts are addressed. Winning a Security Council seat would give Tashkent a direct role in those decisions.
