Kazakhstan, 1998

Allow me to congratulate

you, Sir, on your election to the high office of President

of the General Assembly at its fifty-third session and to

assure you of the full support of the delegation of

Kazakhstan in your work.

Kazakhstan, in welcoming the efforts of the

Secretary-General to reform the United Nations, supports

the decisions adopted by the General Assembly at its last

session. The steps taken in that direction will undoubtedly

facilitate the renewal of the Organization in the changing

historical conditions.

On the threshold of the twenty-first century, the

world is becoming an integrated and interrelated system

in which there is no room for autarchy and self-isolation.

Globalization, which embraces the main spheres of human

activity, has radically altered the accustomed assumptions

about the realities of modern life. Globalization also

compels us to reassess the nature of international

cooperation from the standpoint of strengthening

multilateral mechanisms for taking decisions on the urgent

problems that are of concern to the entire world

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community. Despite all the diversity of national interests,

such decisions need to be taken through joint efforts on the

basis of goodwill and consensus, and here the role of the

United Nations cannot be underestimated.

On the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, we again note the permanent

significance of that instrument in affirming democratic

values and the rule of law.

Kazakhstan, seven years after making its choice of

democracy and an open society, is today taking tangible

steps to intensify its political reforms. Our country is

embarking on a comprehensive programme of

democratization that covers such important spheres as

elections, political parties, Parliament, civil society, the

judicial system, the advancement of women and the mass

media. The President of Kazakhstan, Mr. Nursultan

Nazarbaev, will be taking decisive steps to solve acute

social problems, combat corruption and optimize the State

administration.

All these measures are aimed at further protecting and

guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of every citizen of our

multi-ethnic society. We shall do everything within our

power to preserve such values as inter-ethnic harmony and

the diversity of the cultures and customs of each of the

nationalities that make up the people of Kazakhstan. We

shall strengthen pluralism in society in order reliably to

guarantee the freedoms of conscience, speech and the press

and further to strengthen the foundations of a secular

democratic society.

Kazakhstan does not believe that it is possible to build

its own statehood without successful integration into the

world economy and world politics. In this context, we are

developing and strengthening our national financial

institutions, which has enabled us to cope, at lower cost,

with the consequences of the crisis affecting Asia and the

countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States

(CIS).

As a proponent of a policy of integration, our head of

State is a constant advocate of creating the appropriate

economic conditions for this to take place and has

proposed, as Chairman of the Customs Union, the

conclusion of a treaty on the creation of a unified economic

space within the CIS.

Kazakhstan, which pursues a policy of constructive

cooperation, has created a zone of security and goodneighbourliness around its borders. We are not in

confrontation with any State in the world. As a Eurasian

State, Kazakhstan sees the development of friendly,

equitable and mutually beneficial relations with the

countries of the East and the West as a priority of its

foreign policy.

We believe that Kazakhstan’s voluntary renunciation

of its nuclear heritage and its firm adherence to the nonproliferation regime constitute important prerequisites for

the attainment of this strategic objective. A few days ago,

the second International Conference on the problems of

non-proliferation was held in the town of Kurchatov,

which is within the territory of the former nuclear testingground at Semipalatinsk. During the conference, the last

strategic missile launch silo was shut down.

Kazakhstan consistently advocates the creation of

security structures on the Asian continent. We note with

satisfaction that the initiative of our country’s President to

convene a conference on interaction and confidencebuilding measures in Asia is taking solid shape and

becoming a tangible factor in present-day international

life. This is attested to by the meeting which took place

in Almaty in July of the leaders of Kazakhstan, China, the

Russian Federation, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on issues

of cooperation and confidence-building measures in the

region. We believe that the agreements signed with China

on the delimitation of the Kazakh-Chinese border will

make a major contribution to strengthening regional

security and stability. The Kazakh-Russian Declaration on

eternal friendship and alliance for the twenty-first century

and the Treaty of eternal friendship between Kazakhstan,

Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are also of great importance.

Kazakhstan, as a firm proponent of strengthening

regional and global security, strongly condemns any

undermining of the non-proliferation regime and calls on

India and Pakistan to heed the views of the vast majority

of the world community and accede without delay to the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the Treaty

on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. We support

the call of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for

those countries to join in the negotiations on prohibitions

of the production of fissionable materials for nuclear

weapons and to refrain from deploying such weapons in

their territory. In the context of strengthening regional

security and the non-proliferation regime, Kazakhstan will

continue to work for the creation of a nuclear-weaponfree zone in Central Asia.

The demonstrations of our country’s involvement in

the peacekeeping activities of the United Nations include

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the formation of a peacekeeping battalion in Central Asia

and Kazakhstan’s participation in the United Nations standby arrangements system.

From this high podium, we cannot fail to pay attention

to the current situation in Afghanistan. The events taking

place there, which are accompanied by mass violations of

human rights and the fundamental norms of international

law, have become a subject of profound concern to us.

Kazakhstan has made and will continue to make its

contribution to the achievement of peace in that country.

The task of the world community is to convince all the

parties to the conflict to cease military action right away

and sit down at the negotiating table with a view to

establishing a Government of national reconciliation. We

are convinced that no military solution to the Afghan

problem exists. A peace process in Afghanistan is possible

only if interference from outside is halted and full support

is given to the efforts of the Secretary-General. Not only

immediate neighbours, but all interested countries, must

take an active part in the search for ways of solving the

Afghan problem.

One of the most difficult present-day problems is

international terrorism and organized crime. Kazakhstan

rejects terrorism in all its manifestations and is ready to

participate in international efforts to combat this evil. On

the threshold of the next century, a handful of madmen

cannot be allowed to blackmail and endanger the lives and

well-being of people who uphold the ideas of creation and

peace. This is doubly dangerous in the case of nuclear

terrorism.

International organized crime is associated in one way

or another with illegal drug-trafficking. Most unfortunately,

the scale of the drug business is constantly growing. Drug

addiction, moving freely across borders, is undermining

statehood and the moral foundations of society.

Increasingly, more young people are becoming addicted to

drugs. We are witnessing a new phenomenon of drug

production becoming a leading component of national

economies. Drugs from Afghanistan are to be found in

virtually all countries of the world. Accordingly, we support

the decisions of the twentieth special session of the General

Assembly on international drug control and will participate

actively in their implementation.

In speaking of the main problems that ail mankind, we

cannot forget separatism. Kazakhstan has more than once

stated its position that it does not accept ethnic separatism.

Given the calamities it is inflicting on many States, now is

the time to declare unambiguously that separatism must be

proclaimed outside the law. The right of nations to selfdetermination cannot under present historical

circumstances play the role that it played at the beginning

of this century.

Yet another global problem which casts a cloud over

the future of mankind is the ever deteriorating

environmental situation. Kazakhstan has in all truth

experienced the consequences of environmental disasters.

From this high podium, the President of Kazakhstan has

more than once called on the world community to unify

and coordinate efforts to protect the environment. We are

grateful to the General Assembly for the support that has

been extended to our country, as reflected in the

resolution on assistance in overcoming the consequences

of the nuclear tests in the Semipalatinsk region.

The Aral Sea disaster has become genuinely global

in nature. Deposits of salt from the exposed bed of the

Aral Sea have been found in the Arctic Ocean and in

Western Europe. While noting with gratitude the

assistance from the United Nations, we nevertheless call

on the States Members of our Organization to pay greater

attention to this serious problem and to take more active

and specific steps to solve it.

The peculiarity of the geographical situation of

Kazakhstan, and of Central Asia as a whole, confronts us

with an acute problem of access to world markets,

including the transport of hydrocarbons. Kazakhstan

therefore attaches great importance to cooperation with

the United Nations and its specialized agencies to develop

transit transport systems in the landlocked Central Asian

States.

Reviving the traditions of the Great Silk Road,

Kazakhstan is interested in expanding and developing

transportation networks in Central Asia and beyond. Our

country, with its vast territory, is an important link

between Asia and Europe. Our participation in the

Transport Corridor: Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA)

project will undoubtedly facilitate an increase in the

effectiveness of the transport system in the vast area of

the Eurasian continent.

We place great hopes in the United Nations Special

Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA),

recently adopted by the Economic Commission for

Europe and the Economic and Social Commission for

Asia and the Pacific.

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Kazakhstan, as the Chairman of the Economic

Cooperation Organization (ECO), intends to make a real

contribution to stepping up the activity of this important

regional forum. The Declaration and other documents

adopted at the ECO summit in Almaty creates good

prerequisites for the creation of a favourable trade climate

in relations between the ECO member countries and their

potential partners in Europe and Asia. We believe that ECO

is a promising organization and has great potential for

expanding economic ties in the territories of 10 States with

a total population of more than 300 million people.

Kazakhstan will work for the further strengthening of

cooperation between the ECO and the United Nations.

Another issue that must be included among today’s

urgent problems is the legal status of the Caspian Sea. We

note with satisfaction the progress made in reaching

consensus on this complex and delicate subject, which

affects the interrelations among the five littoral States. The

agreement signed between Kazakhstan and the Russian

Federation in July this year on the delimitation of the

northern part of the Caspian Sea lays the foundations for a

complete settlement of the Caspian problem. It is now

important to take concrete steps for the implementation of

this instrument, which is in conformity with the provisions

of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

A solution of the Caspian problem is of strategic

importance for Kazakhstan. We are interested in reliably

ensuring the export of our mineral resources through

multiple-option oil-gas pipelines. We expect early

implementation of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium project,

and we believe that the construction of an oil pipeline from

western Kazakhstan to China offers promising prospects.

We support the trans-Caspian project for an oil and gas

pipeline, Baku-Ceyhan, and we view the project for an oil

pipeline through the territory of Iran as very promising.

It must be noted with regret that mankind will be

entering the next century burdened by many serious

problems. But, at the same time, there are no grounds for

unrelieved pessimism, since the passing century, which

witnessed two world wars, the development and testing of

lethal types of weapons and a multiplicity of regional and

ethnic conflicts, has developed reliable mechanisms — our

Organization first among them — for preventing and

settling international problems. The cause of peace, security

and development is of concern to all States. We must,

therefore, all act as a united whole. Kazakhstan is ready to

take part in this work for peace and cooperation.