Thinking of Nearly 200 UN Staff Perished in Gaza, Secretary-General Humbly Accepts Award from Uzbekistan

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks upon receiving the highest order of the Dostlik Award, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, today:

I am deeply grateful for one more gesture of the wonderful hospitality I have been enjoying here in Uzbekistan.  I don’t think I deserve this high decoration, but I feel more comforted when I think about all my colleagues that are giving their lives, almost 200 in Gaza, in other parts of the world, to support the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, and to do everything to minimize human suffering in this world full of conflicts and of natural disasters, in which a combination of geopolitical divides, climate change and other challenges make the global situation of peace and security extremely fragile.

But, this distinction has, for me, a very special meaning.  Because it comes from a man that is conducting one of the deepest reform policies that we can witness all over the world.

My first visit to Uzbekistan was more than 20 years ago.

I had the occasion to officially visit Uzbekistan in the beginning of the presidency of you, Mr. President, and I have to say that the reforms that were introduced represent a quantum leap in the capacity of this country to provide its citizens to the most basic rights, and to the most auspicious perspectives for prosperity in the future.

You have developed a policy that is entirely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, and the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations is fully in line with your own project for 2030, which represents a remarkable unity of perspectives in relation to the future that we are facing together.

But, there is another reason that justifies my deep admiration.  In a Central Asia that was not always united, you, Mr. President, have managed to create, together with your colleagues, Heads of State of Central Asia, a new environment.  An environment of dialogue, an environment of cooperation, and an environment where the difficulties of the past are being solved one after another, creating the conditions for which, in my dream, I hope you will be one day one, Central Asia, fully integrated to the benefit of the people of this wonderful region.

Many people seeing Central Asia from the outside, think that this is essentially a crossroads of civilization.  The truth is that Central Asia, Uzbekistan in particular, is much more than a crossroads of civilization, it is a centre of civilization. And it is enough to go to Samarkand or to Bukhara to feel how much this region has contributed to global civilization, how much it was in the centre of the development of global civilization.

Mr. President, you have been a bridge-builder, an honest broker, a messenger for peace.  But, also, a leader committed to prosperity with justice, as the Sustainable Development Goals represent.  And a leader that has recognized the importance of human rights.  In the recent universal periodic review, Uzbekistan has accepted most of the recommendations, and the United Nations is ready to support the Government in its implementation.

As we are ready to support your Government in your ambitious, but perfectly justifiable project, to make this country a beacon of peace, of prosperity and of justice, able to provide to the citizens of Uzbekistan what they deserve, a country that everybody can be proud of.

I will always cherish this distinction, as a distinction that comes from the hands of a statesman that I admire and whose friendship is something that has an enormous value for me.