UN says Awaza conference will spotlight 32 landlocked developing countries

The United Nations will host the Third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC3) in Awaza, Turkmenistan, August 5–8, with a pre-conference day on August 4, organizers said at a UN press briefing. Rabab Fatima, Under‑Secretary‑General and High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, and Aksultan Atayeva, Turkmenistan’s permanent representative to the UN and host of the conference, outlined logistics, priorities and the conference’s expected deliverables.

At the briefing, Fatima called LLDC3 “a once in a decade opportunity” to mobilize international support and move the group’s development agenda forward. “The LLDC story is about the people of the LLDCs,” she said, urging media to amplify the needs of more than half a billion people who live in the 32 landlocked developing countries.

The conference is anchored in a Programme of Action for the decade 2024–2034 that, organizers said, was adopted by the General Assembly by consensus in December. Organizers identified five strategic…