Nursultan Nazarbayev

Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am delighted to welcome to the land of Kazakhstan delegates and guests of the first Eurasian Media Forum, which have gathered leading journalists, politicians and experts to discuss the role of Eurasia in the global development processes, in the process of cultural and informational integration. I would also like to thank president Mohammad Khatami of the Islamic Republic of Iran, philosopher, theologian and campaigner for peace, who managed to free some time out of his very busy schedule to join us today.
The geopolitical changes taking place at this historic junction of the two centuries and millenniums have caused pivotal changes in the world. Probably the most crucial changes have touched upon our continent, which acquired a new shape.

We may suppose that the XXI Century is the century of Eurasia's blooming development.
The former barriers keeping post-Soviet states from cooperation with the rest of the world are being eliminated. New organizations on security cooperation, like Shanghai Cooperation Organization and CICA (Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia), which have huge peacemaking potential, are being established.

An important basis for energy development in the XXI century lies in the Caspian Sea and its resources. This is the place where interests of Atlantic and Eurasian politics meet. This was the target area of Afghan expansion. And we have to avoid the warring clash of interests here. It is absolutely critical for the mankind to have a zone of stability, cooperation and development!

Although all former contradictions between the two world systems have sunk in the past, the new challenges are replacing the old ones. One most topical challenge is international terrorism.
And we have to acknowledge peace is in danger and mankind still has not realised the priority to be given to world dialogue versus armed contradiction and bloodshed.

As of today, we do not need expert reports by the authoritative analytical institutions to realise that the reasons for such a situation in our community lie in global inequality, poverty and illiteracy.
It has been calculated that if we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from both North and South America, and 8 Africans. Of them only 30 would be white, 80 would live in substandard housing, 50 would suffer from malnutrition, and only 1 inhabitant of this hypothetic village would have a college education.

According to the data reported at the UN Millennium Summit 2000, the overall external debt of developing countries constitutes 6 trillion US dollars, and 20% of the world countries possess 80% of global wealth.
To add more statistics, about 500 million people are suffering war, ethnic and religious conflicts.
The lion's share of all sufferings and problems faced by mankind today are those experienced by nations inhabiting our continent. Once we look at the world and Eurasia from this angle, we will realise that the salvation route passes only through mutual understanding and tolerance, mutual assistance in development, and solidarity.

We have strong historic grounds to hope for settlement of most vital problems of the Eurasian continent through peaceful dialogue and cooperation.

First of all, these are centuries of mutual enrichment of Slav and Turkic peoples.
Second, north Eurasia is one of the best examples of religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence of Islam and Christianity. This is a rare thing in today's world, even in its most liberal parts.
Third, many young newly independent countries are facing common risks and threats of international terrorism, political extremism and transnational drug trafficking. And only by joint efforts we can effectively fight this evil.

Under these circumstances, it is extremely important that mass media, having freed from the relics of the Cold War, served for peace and dialogue between nations and religions, the rich and the poor, countries and continents. And this defines their basic historic mission.

In the atmosphere of general globalization and uneven political and economic development, we are witnessing the processes of the world information space globalization as well. And it is clear that informational self-isolation of any state would inevitably cause unpredictable consequences for its future development.

At the same time, the problem of informational dependence of many countries on leading states is also a fact, which can have much more complex and pervasive socio-cultural impact on their development.
Therefore, having been building our new statehood, we have never neglected the issues of our informational independence, which, to my belief, is based on three indispensable values - Freedom, Openness, Law.

Over a very short time Kazakhstan has managed to accomplish profound political and economic reforms. We have been acknowledged as a country of market economy.
We have guaranteed constitutional rights on freedom of speech and barred censorship, eliminated state monopoly on mass media, established new legal and economic basis for informational field development.
Today, that one of the priorities for the development of our state is the preservation and enforcement of our independence, it is critically important that the mass media actively support and render assistance to the development and standing of our state, civil society, maintenance of political stability, international and social peace and accord.

The independent mass media have become our democracy's important component. I deem it very much illustrative that among the numerous organisers of today's Forum are Kazakhstan's free mass media and independent journalistic entities that have gained experience and good standing.

Mass media must constitute the example of a loyal citizen - it is compliance to the law that constitutes the primary foundation for the development of democracy and human rights and freedom.
We must strive to encourage East and West not only to move towards each other but also to encourage them to find a new philosophy of openness and cooperation of civilisations right now and on this continent, a philosophy which will serve as a tool determining the future of Planet Earth - our common and only shelter.

I wish the Forum participants a lot of success in their search for answers to vital problems and challenges facing us today, for new ways of mass media development to meet interests of the global community.
I hope our meetings in Kazakhstan, where the ancient Silk Road had through many centuries connected Orient and Occident, will help to construct new bridges of mutual understanding and cooperation between states and nations. Thank you.