The Avaza National Tourist Zone hosted the Second Consultative Meeting of Central Asian Countries on Developing and Defining the Implementation Mechanism for the UN Special Programme for the Aral Sea Basin (UN SPAS) and a Regional Workshop on Water Diplomacy, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

The event was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan, and the State Committee for Water Resources of Turkmenistan, with support from the UNDP/GEF project "Conservation and Sustainable Management of Land Resources and High Nature Value Ecosystems in the Aral Sea Basin for Multiple Benefits" and in cooperation with the Blue Peace Central Asia initiative. The meeting served as a continuation of the first regional consultative meeting of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), held in Ashgabat on November 30 – December 1, 2024.

The meeting was attended by representatives of relevant ministries and agencies from the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as delegates from the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), UNDP, the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA), the Scientific-Information Center of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (SIC ICWC), the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), UNESCO, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), and other international and regional organizations.

During the two-day sessions, participants engaged in a comprehensive exchange of views on further developing regional cooperation in the Aral Sea basin. A key element of the meeting was reviewing the priorities of the five Central Asian states in developing the UN Special Programme. Delegations from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan presented their positions on future regional interaction and potential development areas for UN SPAS.

Following the Second Regional Meeting, the participating countries adopted an Executive Summary outlining the format for future work on the UN Special Programme for the Aral Sea Basin, detailing practical steps to define the format, legal framework, operational mechanisms, and financing structure of the Special Programme.