We have just signed the host country agreement for the United Nations Regional Centre for the Sustainable Development Goals for Central Asia and Afghanistan.

The Centre represents the opening of a new chapter — for the region and for our collective journey towards the Sustainable Development Goals. It symbolizes the new era of cooperation in Central Asia — grounded in shared priorities and solutions. And it holds great potential for showing how the strong bonds among the region’s leaders can translate into deeper economic integration, for the benefit of all people. 

The Centre has been mandated by the General Assembly, and I look forward to its operationalization — with terms of reference being finalized and leadership appointments to follow. Soon, it will serve as a hub for regional collaboration… a laboratory for ideas… and a launchpad for action. It will bring together governments, UN country teams, civil society, academia, the private sector, regional organizations, and financial institutions — to develop coordinated, country-led efforts. And tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time — from climate change and water scarcity to youth unemployment, gender inequality and digital exclusion.

Working together with our Resident Coordinators and Country Teams, it will contribute to accelerating progress toward the 2030 Agenda in Central Asia and Afghanistan — driven by the spirit of solidarity and shared responsibility that defines the United Nations.

In Central Asia, climate change is already draining water supplies, melting glaciers and fueling natural disasters. The shrinking of the Aral Sea is a stark reminder of the region’s environmental vulnerability.

Rising trade tensions and global uncertainty compound these risks. The region’s landlocked geography presents additional barriers — to trade, connectivity, financing, and access to global markets.

Today, we must say that Kazakhstan is no longer a landlocked country. Kazakhstan is a center in the global trade system. A center in the global logistics, transportation and the telecommunication system with its corridors on roads, railways, fiber optics and transforming this country in really a bridge from East and West, North and South.

And the Center can help ensure that the aspirations of landlocked nations are not constrained by geography — but can empower by cooperation and regional solutions. It will build on the region’s greatest asset — its people.

Young people, women, entrepreneurs, and civil society — these are the true engines of progress, driving the innovation and resilience needed to leave no one behind. The Center will support data-driven policy, spark innovation, and amplify the voices of those too often unheard.

And nowhere is that cooperation more urgent than in our support to Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan continue to face immense hardship — from entrenched poverty and mass displacement to earthquakes, climate shocks, and a fragile humanitarian landscape. They deserve peace, stability and a better future. And I am very grateful for the cooperation Kazakhstan has been developing in recent times.

And this Center will work with partners across the region and the international community to support Afghanistan’s path to sustainable development — with full respect for human rights, including the rights of women and girls, and with a focus on economic self-sufficiency, peace, and dignity.

This Center carries the promise of partnership and progress. The United Nations stands ready to support you in this mission.

We are witnessing a renewed Central Asia. I come to Central Asia since 18 years ago, and I remember how it was, and I see how it is, and it is largely thanks to the leadership, the vision and the wisdom of leaders like President Tokayev, that it was possible to transform a group of countries that have probably more problems and difficulties, that there is an effective cooperation to cohesive Central Asia that is becoming an extremely important Centre in today’s world and in today’s global economy.

And so, to come to Kazakhstan, to come to Almaty, is not only because there is a Center to inaugurate. It’s because I feel, as Secretary-General, that I must pay tribute to what Kazakhstan represents in our troubled world today as a voice of wisdom and reason, as a symbol of peace and cooperation.

(Excerpts of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the Center for Sustainable Development Goals for Central Asia and Afghanistan on 3 August 2025.)