Kazakhstan, 1997

First of all, I would like to

congratulate the President on his election to his high office,

which convincingly proves that the international prestige of

Ukraine, one of the founders of the United Nations, is

widely recognized. For the current session, which is being

held in the spirit of renewal of this world forum, it is very

symbolic.

I also with to express our appreciation to the previous

President, Mr. Razali Ismail, for his considerable

contribution to the successful work of the fifty-first session

of the General Assembly.

Kazakhstan believes that in the twenty-first century the

United Nations should become a highly effective instrument

that will help to make a smooth transition to real

multipolarity, establish global economic partnership and

democratize international relations. For our part, we stand

ready to contribute to the adoption within the United

Nations of important decisions on the urgent issues of

today.

The Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, has

undertaken to carry out a daunting mission of reforming

the Organization. Nothing could be harder than to live in

times of change; it is all the harder to be the maker of the

changes. This is why we are fully on the side of the man

at the head of the United Nations, and we welcome his

initiatives and his course of action. Kazakhstan supports

the Secretary-General’s proposals regarding a more

efficient leadership and management structure, a new

management culture and structural transformations within

the Organization.

We support measures taken by the United Nations to

ensure sustainable development. In our view, the proposed

United Nations Development Group deserves

endorsement. At the same time, it is important to preserve

the independence and the distinctiveness of the funds and

programmes that are being consolidated, especially the

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a reputable

organization that is doing so much for the sake of

children, including its work in Kazakhstan.

The financial crisis of the United Nations is an

urgent issue demanding a solution. The programme of

reforms proposed by the Secretary-General provides for

measures to redress the situation in which the

Organization has found itself. There is no doubt that the

improvement of the financial situation of the United

Nations depends on the fulfilment by Member States of

their obligations to the Organization. Despite the

economic difficulties of the transition period, Kazakhstan

is trying to honour its financial obligations. At the same

time, we consider it imperative to further improve the

scale of assessment on the basis of real ability to pay.

Kazakhstan, as one of the States that have joined the

system of stand-by arrangements, supports the

strengthening of the Organization’s capacity to carry out

preventive and peacekeeping activities. We welcome the

Secretary-General’s proposals on the issues of

disarmament and regulation of armaments, and we

support his measures regarding human rights, organized

crime, drugs and terrorism.

Kazakhstan is ready to join in efforts to strengthen

the role of the General Assembly in dealing with burning

international issues. Our country is in favour of convening

a special “Millennium Assembly” in the year 2000. This

idea is in consonance with President Nursultan

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Nazarbaev’s initiative to convene on the eve of the twenty-

first century a special session of the General Assembly

devoted to reform.

In our opinion, United Nations reforms should be

carried out in an integrated manner, at different levels and

in different directions. At the same time, it is impossible to

ignore that the key element of these reforms is the reform

of the Security Council itself. Kazakhstan has repeatedly

declared its support for Germany and Japan as candidates

for permanent membership of the Council. Supporting the

enlargement of the Council in both categories of its

members, we believe it is possible to include as its

permanent members representatives of the developing

countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America in order to

ensure a balance of interests and an adequate reflection of

existing geopolitical realities. It is important to keep in

mind, however, that to preserve the Security Council’s

efficiency, the number of its members should be limited. At

the same time, we think it is necessary to show proper

respect and to pay attention to other proposals coming from

other States.

Kazakhstan has on several occasions used this high

rostrum to stress the need to strengthen the United Nations

activities in the area of the environment. For our country

these activities have special importance. For this reason,

addressing the nineteenth special session of the United

Nations General Assembly last June, the President of

Kazakhstan once again drew the attention of the

international community to the acute environmental

problems inherited by our country. I refer to ecological

disaster areas of the Aral Sea and the former Semipalatinsk

nuclear testing ground.

The problem of the Aral Sea has a global dimension.

Particles of salt sediments from this region have been found

in Europe, as well as in the Arctic Ocean. The Aral Sea

region is witnessing a disastrous shortage of fresh water, a

worsening of the population’s health and the degradation of

the natural environment.

Some 470 nuclear explosions have been conducted at

the Semipalatinsk testing ground, which used to be the

largest in the world. Enormous damage has been caused to

the health of the population and the natural environment.

We believe that nuclear weapons represent a tragedy that

affects all the peoples of the world. With that in mind, our

Head of State has spoken about the responsibility of the

nuclear Powers for the damage caused to the population

and the natural environment of the States where nuclear

tests were conducted. Such responsibility could be

shouldered by setting up an international fund for the

rehabilitation of the health of the population and the

environment of the regions affected by nuclear-weapon

tests.

Our President’s decision to close the Semipalatinsk

testing ground should be considered as a major

contribution to nuclear disarmament of historic

significance. This month Kazakhstan hosted an

international conference on nuclear non-proliferation,

initiated by President Nazarbaev. Participants visited the

former testing ground and became further convinced of

the need to assist Kazakhstan, which is overcoming the

consequences of nuclear tests conducted for more than

half a century.

In this respect, the strengthening of environmental

security has the highest priority for the region of Central

Asia. Accordingly, at a meeting held in Almaty last

February, the Heads of the Central Asian States adopted

a Declaration proclaiming 1998 a Year of Environmental

Protection in our region and highlighting the need to

establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia. We

are grateful to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for

his support for the idea of establishing such a zone, in his

message addressed to the participants in the Semipalatinsk

conference.

As a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty,

Kazakhstan is firmly committed to the non-proliferation

regime, and considers it important to actively contribute

to its further strengthening. Our State vigorously supports

the objectives of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban

Treaty. We believe that the signing of this document was

one of the most important and historic events of this

century, which is nearing its end. We call on all States to

adhere to this Treaty.

Recognizing the importance of a deep reduction in

the number of conventional weapons having

indiscriminate effects, Kazakhstan took a decision to

declare a moratorium, effective 6 August 1997, on the

export of anti-personnel mines, including the re-export

and transit thereof.

Kazakhstan has taken consistent steps to strengthen

security and stability at the regional level. Nursultan

Nazarbaev’s initiative to convene a Conference on

Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia,

first put forward at the forty-seventh session of the

General Assembly, is shaping up on the practical plane.

We are planning to convene, in 1998, a meeting of

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Foreign Ministers of interested States to discuss security

issues in Asia.

The formation of a Central Asian battalion under the

auspices of the United Nations has become a factor of

stability in the Central Asian region and provides clear

evidence of the implementation of the proposal made by

our Head of State. Recently, its first exercises were

successfully conducted in Kazakhstan.

The signing of unique agreements between

Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and the People’s

Republic of China on confidence-building measures and the

reduction of armed forces in the border region should be

considered as a major achievement in the area of

international security.

We note with satisfaction the signing in June of the

General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and

National Accord in Tajikistan, which represents a

significant breakthrough in the settlement, under the

auspices of the United Nations, of the longest-running

conflict among the post-Soviet countries. Kazakhstan is one

of the guarantors of the peace process in Tajikistan. We

believe that all those concerned should ensure the adoption

of practical measures to facilitate the implementation of the

agreements concluded, the delivery of international

humanitarian assistance and the reconstruction of the

national economy.

We are seriously concerned by the continued armed

confrontation in Afghanistan. We in Kazakhstan are

convinced that peace in that country can be achieved

through political negotiations, under the auspices of the

United Nations, between all the parties involved in this

conflict in order to establish peace and form a Government

of national unity in that country, which has suffered so

much.

Kazakhstan, which is committed to the ideas of

renewal, has firmly embarked on a course of economic

reform and the democratization of social life. Reforms in

our country have become irreversible. The privatization of

the economy is being completed, the level of inflation has

been steadily low, the national currency is stable and liquid,

and for the first time in a little more than five years of

independence we have registered economic growth.

Kazakhstan is open to the outside world and offers

considerable investment opportunities. Our State is leading

the Commonwealth of Independent States in per capita

foreign investments. We strongly believe that very soon

Kazakhstan will firmly take its place in global integration

processes and become a fully fledged member of major

economic associations and organizations.

We should like to express our appreciation to the

United Nations for its support for President Nazarbaev’s

proposal to create a joint body for Central Asia under two

regional Commissions, the United Nations Economic

Commission for Europe (ECE) and the United Nations

Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the

Pacific (ESCAP). In a few days’ time, the heads of these

Commissions will come to our country. A special ECE-

ESCAP programme for Central Asian States is under

way. A joint office of the two organizations is to be

opened in Almaty.

I would like to make special mention of the

activities of the Economic Cooperation Organization

(ECO). Seven new States, including Kazakhstan, joined

ECO not very long ago. Nevertheless, the ECO member

States have managed to reach promising levels of

cooperation and interaction. The declaration adopted at

the ECO summit last May provides an opportunity to

create new transportation corridors and routes to transport

hydrocarbons, and the ECO member States, as well as

many other countries in Asia and Europe, are equally

interested in their development.

How the Organization will look when it enters the

twenty-first century will depend on the decisions we take

in the follow-up to our discussions of United Nations

reform. Years ago, an enormous internal capacity was

built into the United Nations Charter. The United Nations

was designed for a world based on the principles of

partnership and cooperation, not on all-out confrontation.

Also important is the fact that the United Nations Charter,

which might be called an institutional pillar of the

Organization, is a highly balanced document, free of any

visible bias in one direction or another, and this has

allowed it to become, one might say, a code of modern

international relations that no civilized State has any right

to ignore. The decisions that are being taken should be as

balanced as possible and should not amount to stop-gap

and ad hoc measures. That is one of the main demands

with regard to United Nations reform.

The United Nations should come out of the reform

process renewed, more effective and more efficient.