Thank you, Madam Chair.
We would like to warmly welcome Ambassador Dzhusupov back to the Permanent Council and thank him and his team for their valuable work in addressing and countering economic and environmental security challenges affecting our region. Thank you for an insightful report and presentation.
Flooding, water scarcity, extreme weather, and glacier melting are just some of the many effects of climate change we are facing in our region today, often with political consequences. We are thankful for the Secretariat’s efforts in promoting regional dialogue and co-operation between participating states for addressing and mitigating climate change, such as this week’s economic and environmental dimension implementation meeting addressing the security implications of water management.
Madam Chair,
Russia’s illegal and unjustified war of aggression continues to have grave economic and environmental impacts in Ukraine, including threats to water and energy security. We commend OCEEA’s support to Ukraine through their projects and initiatives. Let me also underline the importance of combating corruption and of enhancing good governance in the 2nd dimension. We commend your work in this domain and encourage further efforts.
Furthermore, Norway is committed to ensuring the economic empowerment of women and youth in the energy and water sector, and to apply an intersectional lens when addressing economic and environmental challenges. In this regard, Norway is proud to fund the extra-budgetary project on “Promoting Women’s economic empowerment in the energy sector in Central Asia for energy security and sustainability”.
We are grateful that all participating states were able to reach consensus on the format of the second-dimension events this year and wish to stress the importance of reaching consensus on mandated events across all three OSCE dimensions.
Thank you.