ASTANA (TCA) — During the month of January, Kazakhstan steered the work of one of the main UN bodies, guided by President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s policy address to the UN Security Council called Kazakhstan’s Concept Vision on Sustaining Global Partnership for Secure, Just and Prosperous World, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The flagship event of Kazakhstan’s presidency of the UN Security Council was a high-level thematic briefing Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Confidence-Building Measures held on January 18 and chaired by President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. The meeting demonstrated that confidence-building measures, as well as the strengthening of preventive diplomacy tools, can serve as a starting point for making progress on many critical issues that may not be resolved in a timely manner due to the political situation in the relations of world powers, the ministry said.
The Statement by the President of the UN Security Council adopted at the end of the meeting was devoted to a comprehensive conflict prevention strategy. In addition to early warning, preventive deployment, mediation, peacekeeping, post-conflict peacebuilding and accountability measures, this document included for the first time the problems of the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This is what makes the adopted document unique, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry emphasized.
Kazakhstan, being the first Central Asian state elected to the UN Security Council, during its presidency continued actively promoting the interests of all states of the region.
The central event was the ministerial debates of the UN Security Council held on January 19 focusing on Building Regional Partnership in Afghanistan and Central Asia as a Model to Link Security and Development, chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kairat Abdrakhmanov. The meeting was attended by Foreign Ministers of Kuwait, Russia, Poland, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, deputy foreign ministers of Great Britain, the Netherlands, the United States, Equatorial Guinea and Afghanistan, as well as delegations of the UN Security Council member states and the European Union. UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a keynote address.
The meeting resulted in the adoption of Presidential Statement. The document stresses the importance of advancing regional, interregional and international cooperation to achieve long-term peace, stability and sustainable development in Afghanistan and Central Asia and supports the joint efforts of countries of the region towards the enhancement of a zone of peace, cooperation and prosperity.
An important event of Kazakhstan’s presidency was the visit of the UN Security Council delegation to Kabul on January 12-15. During the visit, meetings were held with the country’s top leadership, representatives of political parties and civil society. In the course of the visit, the efforts of the Government of Afghanistan to address a wide range of interrelated problems were considered and it was determined how the Security Council could further promote efforts on the ground.
The field mission to Kabul was the Security Council’s first visit to Afghanistan since 2010, and gave insight into the situation and an objective understanding of the real interests and priorities of the country and its civilian population.
On January 18, Kazakhstan held a special high-level event at the UN headquarters to launch the draft Code of Conduct for the Achievement of a Terrorism-Free World. The main goal of the document is to achieve a terrorism-free world by 2045 and create a broad international coalition of partner countries. The UN leadership and counterterrorism-related committees of the Security Council, heads and representatives of more than a hundred delegations of Member States supported the relevance and significance of the Code.
Taking into account involvement in many global and regional processes, its proactive stand in mediation and confidence building, Kazakhstan will continue to act as an honest broker, known for its effective balanced approach and neutrality to all international actors, states and organizations as part of multilateral diplomacy, the Foreign Ministry concluded.
