Sixty-seventh General Assembly

Plenary

98^th Meeting (AM)

General Assembly Passes Resolution in Support of Establishing

 

Eurasian Connectivity Alliance

 

Adopted without Vote, Text Expected to Boost Regional Telecoms Transit Routes

The General Assembly invited Member States this morning to support the proposed establishment of the Eurasian Connectivity Alliance with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a way to improve the development of regional telecommunications transit routes in the Trans-Eurasian region.

In a resolution adopted without a vote, as orally revised (document A/67/L.78), the Assembly also invited Governments, the United Nations system, international development institutions and other actors to engage in relevant discussions on the proposed Alliance.

Introducing the text, Agshin Mehdiyev ( Azerbaijan) said it sought to renew attention and support for the Alliance, first recognized in Assembly resolution 67/194.  The Alliance would serve as a regional platform to enhance trans-regional cooperation in information and communications technology, help Governments respond better to needs and challenges in that sector, attract strong private sector interest and facilitate knowledge-sharing, he said, adding that Member States’ support for the Alliance was crucial to the creation of an environment more conducive to connectivity.

After the adoption, Nikolay Sahakov ( Armenia) said regional connectivity solutions could enable countries to achieve economies of scale, and his country was ready to discuss options in that regard.  The Alliance should be open to all interested States, not those using economic projects for political aims, he emphasized.

Jill Derderian ( United States), while expressing strong support for connectivity and bridging the digital divide, said the issue had already been addressed in resolution 67/194, adopted earlier in the session.  Taking up the matter so late after the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) had concluded its work deprived the Assembly of input from its experts on the subject, she pointed out, stressing nevertheless that the United States would work with others to expand connectivity in the Eurasian region.

Jan Pirouz Poulsen of the European Union delegation echoed her concerns, saying he did not see the benefit of a “stand-alone” resolution at the present time since it added no specific value to the previous one.  Nor was it common practice for the Assembly to issue multiple texts on the same topic during the same session without a reason to do so, he noted.  Any follow-up to the current text and to resolution 67/194 should be integrated into the text on information and communications technology, to be adopted at the Assembly’s sixty-eighth session.

He went on to emphasize the importance of information and communications technology development and further regional integration and connectivity in the Eurasia region and beyond, saying the European Union had provided €5 million for the Central Asia Research and Education Network.  It had also provided €1 million for the regional electronic communications regulatory framework between itself and its Eastern partner countries, and €2.1 million to ensure stable connectivity between the South Caucasian National Research and Education Network and the European Academic Network, he added.

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For information media • not an official record