Kazakhstan, 2010

First of all, I would like to offer

congratulations on the upcoming sixty-fifth

anniversary of the United Nations. For an individual

person, 65 is an age when life experience turns into

wisdom. As the great Goethe once said, it is our

experience that teaches us to truly appreciate life.

Today, the United Nations, with its 65 years of

experience gained in the noble work for peace and

progress, is the most reputable and relevant

international organization there is. Each State Member

of the United Nations, regardless of its size or power,

seeks to contribute to building a safer and better world.

On 29 August 1949, the first atomic explosion on

the ancient Kazakh land was carried out near the city

of Semipalatinsk, unleashing an insane nuclear arms

race and inflicting enormous suffering on the people of

Kazakhstan. On 29 August 1991, the President of

Kazakhstan, Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, issued a decree

that unilaterally shut down, once and for all, one of the

world’s largest nuclear test sites.

It is highly symbolic that 18 years later, the

General Assembly at its preceding session acted upon

his initiative to adopt a resolution establishing

29 August as the International Day against Nuclear

Tests (resolution 64/35). The unanimous adoption of

the resolution has effectively reaffirmed the

commitment of the international community to the

process of reducing the nuclear threat.

The April visit of Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon to Kazakhstan started with a tour of the

former Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Standing right

on the former Ground Zero, he urged the international

community to redouble its efforts to create a world free

of nuclear weapons.

For the people of Kazakhstan, who know only too

well all the horrors of nuclear tests, the issue of a total

ban on such tests is particularly relevant. Over the

course of 40 years, some 490 nuclear explosions were

carried out at the Semipalatinsk test site, affecting

more than half a million people and damaging territory

as large as today’s Germany.

Today we call upon States that have not signed or

ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

(CTBT) to do so as soon as possible. The entry into

force of the CTBT will become one of the key areas of

effective implementation of the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), an

important instrument forming a foundation for the

security of all humanity.

We are satisfied that the States parties to the NPT

were able to adopt a final document last May at the

conclusion of the latest NPT Review Conference. But

new and more decisive steps are needed today for

nuclear disarmament. An early drafting of a Fissile

Material Cut-off Treaty, which along with the CTBT

should become an important pillar of the NPT, is one

such step.

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We believe that it is extremely important to

begin, as soon as possible, to draft an international

legally binding instrument providing security

assurances by nuclear Powers to non-nuclear-weapon

States. Only such assurances can effectively keep in

check the aspirations of certain non-nuclear States to

acquire nuclear weapons, which they regard as a

guarantee of their own security.

The establishment of new zones free from nuclear

weapons, including in the Middle East, would

represent another step towards achieving the goal of a

nuclear-free world. We are convinced that a focused

and progressive move in that direction would

contribute to the establishment of trust among

neighbours in the region and lay the foundations for a

radical change in the situation of that long-suffering

region.

Addressing the Assembly from this rostrum, I

would like to reaffirm the urgency and relevance of the

initiative of the President of Kazakhstan, Mr. Nursultan

Nazarbayev, to draft a universal declaration on a

nuclear-free world, which would reflect the

commitment of all States to firmly and consistently

move towards a nuclear-weapon-free world.

We support the legitimate and inalienable right of

each State party to the NPT to develop nuclear energy

for peaceful purposes. However, such activities should

be carried out in a transparent manner and on the basis

of strict compliance with all requirements of the

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and under

its control. Kazakhstan, the world’s largest uranium

producer, intends to contribute to the development of

nuclear energy and is ready to host an international

nuclear fuel bank, under the auspices of the IAEA, and

to commit itself to its safe storage.

As 2010 Chairman-in-Office of the Organization

for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),

Kazakhstan, in the interests of all participating States,

has emphasized efforts to shape not a security space

but a security community, free of dividing lines and

zones with different levels of security.

The promotion of an atmosphere of trust in the

interests of all and strengthening consensus on key

issues in all three dimensions of OSCE activities has

made it possible to reach a historic consensus on an

OSCE summit, to be held on 1 and 2 December 2010 in

the capital of Kazakhstan. It will be the first such event

in the past 11 years. I have no doubt that this upcoming

Astana summit will become a landmark in the

progressive movement of the OSCE participating

States towards shaping a truly common and indivisible

security community in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian

zones, based on shared values, principles and

commitments.

In that regard, we view the discussion at this

OSCE summit of the issue of the stabilization and

social and economic rehabilitation of Afghanistan as an

important contribution to regional and global security.

Time has proven that a purely military solution to the

Afghan problem does not exist. Accordingly,

Kazakhstan favours enhanced efforts by the

international community to adapt Afghanistan to post-

war development. On the initiative of our head of

State, an educational programme has begun this year to

train some 1,000 Afghan nationals in the educational

institutions of Kazakhstan for careers in medicine,

agriculture and construction. We have allocated

$50 million to that purpose.

The serious political crisis in Kyrgyzstan, which

could have extremely negative consequences not only

for Central Asia but also far beyond its borders, has

demonstrated the lack of an effective and

comprehensive mechanism to prevent such conflicts.

That is why the forthcoming OSCE summit provides a

unique opportunity to develop an appropriate

mechanism, drawing on the great potential and

experience of the OSCE, the United Nations and other

multilateral institutions.

In the context of countering new challenges and

threats, primarily terrorism and drug trafficking, we

pay close attention to the implementation of counter-

terrorism conventions and Security Council

resolutions, and we support early adoption of a

comprehensive convention on international terrorism.

Kazakhstan has actively supported the Global Initiative

to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. At the initiative of

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan put

forward at the global Nuclear Security Summit in

Washington, in April 2010, a proposal for a conference

on countering the financing of terrorism.

That phenomenon is closely linked to drug

trafficking, and thus combating that scourge is one of

our top priorities. Accordingly, Kazakhstan attaches

great importance to the Central Asian Regional

Information and Coordination Center (CARICC) for

combating illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs,

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psychotropic substances and their precursors, located

in Almaty, Kazakhstan. We believe that CARICC can

and should become a platform for interaction between

regional anti-drug agencies.

We also intend to take those issues forward

within the framework of our activities in other

international organizations, including the upcoming

2011-2012 Kazakhstan chairmanship of the Ministerial

Conference of the Organization of the Islamic

Conference (OIC). One of the universally accepted

themes is the promotion of the ideas of tolerance, non-

discrimination, and intercultural and interfaith

dialogue. At the initiative of the President of

Kazakhstan, Astana has become the venue for a unique

forum, the Congress of Leaders of World and

Traditional Religions, recognized today as an effective

platform for dialogue to promote ideas of interfaith

peace and harmony.

As a sponsor of resolution 62/90, we welcome the

efforts of Member States, UNESCO and other

international organizations to conduct activities in

observance of the International Year for the

Rapprochement of Cultures.

We commend the work of the Alliance of

Civilizations and stand ready to continue to actively

cooperate with it to promote the goals and objectives of

the Alliance at the international level.

Based on its experience, Kazakhstan supports the

active use of the capacity of authoritative regional

arrangements, such as the OSCE and the OIC, in

efforts to overcome nationalism, religious intolerance,

racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and we intend

to work for the adoption of concrete decisions within

those organizations. We are deeply convinced that

today security cannot be for a single country, region or

continent alone. Therefore Kazakhstan believes that all

existing structures of regional and international

security must coordinate their efforts and cooperate

actively together.

In this context, I would like to note with great

satisfaction that the first meeting of the Conference on

Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia

and the OSCE, which was held in June 2010 in

Istanbul, has laid the foundation for a future

transcontinental security belt. It appears that the level

of institutional development of the Conference and the

growing interest in its activities on the part of Asian

countries will allow us to consider that forum as a

prototype of a collective security system in Asia.

Today, the world is slowly but surely emerging

from a severe financial and economic crisis. At this

juncture, it is critically important to ensure that the

development of a post-crisis model of development is

not limited to cosmetic measures. Instead, it should

produce a qualitative restructuring of the entire system

of international economic relations. We believe that all

the world’s economic problems are rooted in the

inefficiency of the existing world monetary system,

which no one controls and which is not democratic.

Kazakhstan’s leader has proposed that a new

financial architecture be developed, with a global

regulatory system to oversee financial markets at its

core. Such a mechanism would allow us to avoid

speculative interflows of resources that exist only on

paper and a situation in which developing countries are

actually financing consumption in the developed

countries. The establishment of a more stable

macroeconomic model, in our view, calls for the

introduction of a single supranational currency, under

the auspices of the United Nations.

Finding an urgent solution to environmental

problems is one of our main responsibilities to future

generations. It is also a prerequisite of preserving life

on Earth. In this context, we have initiated plans for

holding ministerial conferences for the Economic and

Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the

Economic Commission for Europe in 2010 or 2011 in

Astana. The goal of these events is to build a “green

bridge” between Europe and Asia and to harmonize

programmes for sustainable development and

environmental protection.

We appreciate the assistance provided by the

international community, including the United Nations

and its specialized agencies and programmes, to our

country’s efforts to overcome the effects of

environmental disasters in the Aral Sea and

Semipalatinsk regions. Given their global nature, they

call for an effective new approach on the part of the

donor community to solve these problems.

Kazakhstan is firmly committed to the

democratization of its society and building a State

based on the rule of law. In February this year, our

country successfully passed its first universal periodic

review of the Human Rights Council and intends to

fully implement its recommendations. Reaffirming its

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commitment to open and constructive cooperation in

the area of human rights, Kazakhstan has sent a

standing invitation to all mandate holders of the

Council’s special procedures.

Our country has always been and still remains

open to cooperation with the international community

in the protection and realization of individual rights

and freedoms. With those values and ideals in mind,

Kazakhstan has put forward its candidature to the

Human Rights Council for the 2012-2015 term, which

we hope will be supported.

Over the past 65 years the United Nations has

made an enormous contribution to international peace

and security on the Earth and to the solution of many

social, economic, humanitarian and other problems. It

is in our common interests that the United Nations

continue to demonstrate leadership in promoting peace

and cooperation and sustainable progress on Earth.

Kazakhstan not only has consistently supported and

supports the activities of the United Nations, but

always seeks to contribute to the attainment of the lofty

goals set by our respected Organization.