Turkey: Turkey Agrees To Commit $4 Million Annually Towards Supporting Food, Agricultural And Forestry Issues In Central Asian Countries

Turkey has ratified a supplementary agreement to strengthen the Food and Agriculture Organization Subregional Office for Central Asia ("Subregional Office") on 6 June 2016 ("Agreement"). Under the new commitments, Turkey will provide a total of USD 4 million annually to trust funds addressing hunger, poverty, sustainable agriculture, food safety and forestry issues in specified Central Asian countries. Beneficiary countries are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The Agreement strengthens and extends the Subregional Office's scope, as well as aims to reinforce Turkey's partnership with both the Food and Agriculture Organization and beneficiary countries.

The Subregional Office was established in Ankara within the scope of the Food and Agriculture Organization Reform Program, under the Host Nation Agreement signed between Turkey and the United Nations in 2006.

According to the Agreement:

• Turkey will now annually provide USD $2 million to a newly established trust fund focused on eliminating hunger and poverty in Subregion Countries, as well as supporting sustainable agriculture and food safety and Turkey's obligations for these issues. Other countries can also be included, if necessary.
• Turkey will now annually provide USD $2 million to a newly established trust fund focused on forestry issues in the Subregion Countries, such as promoting and supporting sustainable forest, forage and terrains, management of the natural resources, preventing desertification, rural development and Turkey's obligations for these issues.

The law ratifying the Agreement was published in Official Gazette number 29752 on 24 June 2016. Please see this link for the full text of the Agreement (available in Turkish and English). 

Information first published in the MA | Gazette, a fortnightly legal update newsletter produced by Moroğlu Arseven.

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