NEWS

Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister: We Are “Deeply Grateful” to OSCE Member States for Supporting the Summit Idea

            Kazakhstan is “deeply grateful to the OSCE member states for their support for the idea of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to hold an OSCE summit next year, as confirmed in today’s decisions of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs,” Kanat Saudabayev, the country’s Secretary of State – Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in Athens today.

            “As chairman-in-office, Kazakhstan will be unwaveringly committed to fundamental principles and values of the OSCE, and proceed from the interests of all its members in order to strengthen the trust and mutual understanding between the countries to the west and to the east of Vienna,” Kanat Saudabayev said at the press conference at the end of the 17^th annual council of foreign ministers of OSCE which took place in the Greek capital on December 1 and 2. “We will seek to ensure the balance of all three baskets of the Organization’s activities,” he stressed. 

            The Secretary of State – Minister of Foreign Affairs praised the Greek chairmanship and its launch of a dialog on the future of European security, the so called Corfu Process. He expressed Kazakhstan’s readiness to build on the arduous efforts to promote this process.

The OSCE should be relevant as an effective mechanism of regional implementation of universal international legal documents in areas such as maintaining military and political security, promoting conflict resolution and post-conflict rehabilitation, economic and environmental cooperation, and the protection of human rights and democratization, Kanat Saudabayev said as he specifically noted the need for the OSCE to counteract threats coming out of Afghanistan. The Foreign Minister said it should be a common responsibility for OSCE member states to preserve and develop the positive trends within the OSCE.

            It is given all that that Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed to hold an OSCE summit next year, which will be a year of the 35^th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, the 65^th anniversary of the end of Word War II and the 20^th anniversary of the Paris Charter for a New Europe.

            “All of this gives a good reason to at least seriously analyze the modern role of the Organization in ensuring security and prosperity in the area from Vancouver to Vladivostok and developing the most important priorities for the OSCE for the near future,” the Foreign Minister said as he explained the reasons for the summit. The subjects for the summit could be pressing issues such as the future of the Corfu process and the creation of a single trans-Atlantic and Eurasian security architecture, the issues of tolerance and nondiscrimination and the rehabilitation of and assistance for Afghanistan.

            Kanat Saudabayev added he visited Kabul recently, signing an agreement under which Astana will allocate 50 million dollars to educate 1,000 Afghans at Kazakhstan’s universities. “We would like to bring our own contribution to involving the Afghans in the peaceful life.”

             “We are convinced that today, 10 years since the Istanbul summit, a moment has come when our top leaders should at the highest level assess current challenges for our countries and define the most important priorities for ensuring security and prosperity in the area from Vancouver to Vladivostok,” Kanat Saudabayev said. “We hope to continue working fruitfully together during Kazakhstan’s chairmanship both on organizing an OSCE high level meeting, and on strengthening and developing our organization in general.”

            Kazakhstan formally assumes the one-year rotating chairmanship on January 1, 2010. The country’s foreign minister will then act as the OSCE Acting Chairman-in-Office.

Date of issue: 2009-12-02