Real diplomacy is the art of winning without weapons. Its crown, it is the eternal goal – the establishment of a comprehensive peace. And this aspiration is a guideline for genuine diplomacy. The one that is conceived as a tool for resolving international contradictions through reconciliation in a bloodless way.

Neutrality, in turn, is the ability to find common points of interest with all parties. Even between irreconcilable antagonists in the name of peaceful coexistence of countries and peoples.

Thus, diplomacy and neutrality are closely interrelated. As well as not being able to exist without each other, but complementary Yin and Yang.

And on Saturday, neutral Turkmenistan honored its diplomats. And he did it on their professional holiday, which, in addition to evaluating the current cohort of foreign policy employees, resulted in a review of their nearest reserve.

The day of the diplomatic worker of Turkmenistan in the national calendar of holidays falls on February 18. But the events dedicated to this event – solemn, intellectual, creative and sports – lasted three days.

The final chord of the celebration was a concert at the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, during which future diplomats, and for now students, besides songs in the Turkmen language, performed them in Russian and English, Chinese and Indian, Arabic and Turkish, German and Spanish.

And, of course, during the concert, songs were sung in the languages of the nearest neighboring peoples - Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kazakh and Tajik.

Of course, it should be welcomed when future diplomats practically gain knowledge about the culture and art of the countries in which they are destined to carry out a responsible mission in the near future.

...If in the modern world the observed processes of politicization of sports separate people, then the organizers of the events dedicated to the Day of Diplomatic Workers tried to make sure that the competitions traditionally held in honor of this holiday brought people closer together.

For this purpose, competitions in five disciplines – lawn and table tennis, volleyball, bowling and football - were held among the diplomatic missions accredited in Turkmenistan in the Olympic Town of Ashgabat.

The teams that took 1-3 places were given cups, corresponding medals and certificates signed by the Head of the Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov.

On the first day of the competition, the winners and winners of bowling awards were determined. The gold medal was won by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Tajikistan Sharifzoda Farrukh Khomiddin, followed by representatives of the Embassy of Palestine and the US attache, who won the silver and bronze awards, respectively.

Chinese Ambassador Qian Naicheng, who demonstrated a good athletic form in table tennis, despite all the efforts that deserve the highest marks, could not break into the top three winners.

The places on the podium were taken by: an employee of the US Embassy (gold medal) and two representatives of the United Nations (silver and bronze awards).

A serious struggle unfolded among the football teams of diplomatic missions.

The teams of the Embassies of the United States, Qatar, the United Nations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of our country broke through to the semifinals.

To clarify, the UN team was reinforced by players from the OSCE and the European Union, so it could be called a "Team of international organizations." She came together with Qatar in the fight for the bronze medals.

It is not surprising that the "National team of international organizations" was the first to open the account, but the Qataris managed to recoup the missed ball. Moreover, they, apparently inspired by the success of the recent World Cup held in their homeland, pulled ahead – 2:1.

Despite the fact that the reinforced composition of the "National Team of international organizations" equalized the score, the Qataris continued to methodically attack the opponent's goal, trying to snatch victory. However, the ball did not want to fly into the seemingly enchanted opponent's goal.

But a more twisted plot fell on the final match, where the teams of the US Embassy and the Turkmen Foreign Ministry met. Recall that the United States is the current champion of the football tournament traditionally held in Ashgabat in honor of the Day of Diplomatic Workers. Last year, the Americans defeated the Turkmen Foreign Ministry in an incredibly stubborn struggle.

This year, difficult victories over the teams of China and Italy opened the way to the finals for the teams of the USA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan. The Americans clearly wanted to repeat last year's success in the current tournament, seizing the initiative from the first minutes and finishing the first half with a big advantage, as evidenced by the score 3:1.

But the short break turned out to be in favor of the Turkmen diplomats, who in the second half were able to level the game and systematically bring the score to a draw. Moreover, the players of the national team of the country's foreign ministry, who caught the courage, ensured that the fourth ball, despite the stubborn resistance of the Americans, still flew into their goal.

It would seem that the game has already been made, it remains to bring it to the final, but the US embassy team did not want to give up, and its perseverance was rewarded with a goal against the Foreign Ministry. And this gave American diplomats hope that the match could be saved by starting all over again. However, the missed goal angered the Turkmen Foreign Ministry so sportily that they became unstoppable in their attacks and hit the opponent's goal twice more in the remaining time.

So the Turkmen football players became world champions this year among the diplomatic missions accredited in Turkmenistan.

On the second day, the attache of Pakistan (gold medal), the UN Permanent Coordinator in Turkmenistan Dmitry Shlapachenko (silver medal) and an employee of the Embassy of India (bronze medal) achieved success in lawn tennis competitions.

And in volleyball, the places on the podium were distributed in descending order among the representatives of the teams of the USA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and India.

... Sports events in the Olympic Town of Ashgabat and a concert at the Institute of International Relations were preceded by a brain ring, which ORIENT has already written about.

The winner of the intellectual game among students was the Alma mater of the country's diplomatic personnel – the IMO of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, which overtook the strong team of the International University of Humanities and Development. The third place belongs to the Turkmen State University named aafter Magtymguly

The culmination of the holiday of diplomatic workers was the international conference "Dialogue – a guarantee of peace", which was attended by employees of the country's foreign ministry, representatives of embassies and international organizations accredited in Turkmenistan, teaching staff of a number of domestic universities, public organizations and mass media.

During the forum, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country Rashid Meredov, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Central Asia, Head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia Natalia German, UN Permanent Coordinator in Turkmenistan Dmitry Shlapachenko, UNDP Permanent Representative Narine Sahakyan, UNICEF Representative Mohammad Fayyazi, Vice Rector of the Institute made reports and reports international relations Gulshat Yusupova et al.

Within the framework of the scientific forum, the head of the country's foreign ministry, on behalf of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, presented the veterans of the diplomatic sphere with the distinctive sign "Turkmenistany ussat diplomacy".

Permanent Representative to the UN Aksoltan Atayeva, Executive Secretary of the National Commission of Turkmenistan for UNESCO Chynar Rustamova, Ambassador of Turkmenistan to the USA Meret Orazov, Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Germany Berdimyrat Rejepov, Head of the Department of the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country Amangeldi Rahmanov and associate professor of the same university Chary Niyazov were awarded this high honor.

Along with the elders of the diplomatic service, diplomas of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan were awarded to young specialists starting their way, as well as to graduate students of the Institute of International Relations.

As for the above-mentioned exhibition, its exposition covered the entire palette of diplomatic activities of Turkmenistan and its partners in the foreign policy arena.

The colorful exhibition was accompanied by smiles and truly friendly conversations, even though its participants represented countries implementing contradictory foreign policy doctrines and ideological views.

And does this attitude of diplomats to each other not deserve respect?

In this way and with such an emotional background, all three days filled with events dedicated to the holiday of Turkmen diplomats flew by unnoticed.

Bekdurdy AMANSARIEV
Video: Suleiman CHARYEV