Welcome Speech by The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
Dear participants of the Media Forum,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am pleased to welcome you to the 6th Eurasian Media Forum. This event has already become a good tradition, bringing together the world's leading public figures and journalists here in Almaty, at the heart of Eurasia, to discuss possible ways of looking at the most relevant items on the global agenda.
The significance of the Forum is obvious to everyone: it has become the most prominent venue for dialogue in Eurasia, enabling politicians, public figures and journalists to ask difficult questions of each other and to look from new angles at the state of the world today and in what directions we are heading.
The topics to be discussed by the participants in the following three days are significant for all the countries and the regions. We all have a shortage of common and harmonious views on the root causes of the main global challenges and the ways to tackle them.
Kazakhstan is situated at a sort of strategic junction where the geopolitical vectors and the cultures of East and West, North and South, cross and intersect. Our national strategy has been mapped out based on the realization of the close relations that exist between national and international processes.
No country will have good prospects if it fails adequately to find its place in the global community. Only the right position, only a clear understanding of what you can take from the world while at the same time making a contribution, can ensure sustainable development and harmonised
In recent years we started setting our goals using such terms as competitiveness and integration into the global economy. This has enabled our economy to grow steadily on average by 10% every year starting from 2000. During this reform period we have mobilized over 50b USD of foreign direct investment. Per capita GDP grew from 697 US Dollars in 1993 to 5,083 US Dollars in 2006. Industrial output in the last ten years more than doubled.
However, we need to grow further in new ways based on new technology and innovative economic structure, scientific and human development. We have started making systemic efforts to diversify our economy. In recent years financing provided for research increased by seven times. We plan that by 2010 funds allocated for research will reach 2% of GDP.
Our experience of phased modernisation and transit, as well as our model of public concord, may be useful to many countries experiencing social, economic and political transformation.
And besides, in the past years Kazakhstan has not only taken its own place in the international community but has also contributed to strengthening international security and the sustainable development of the world.
Dear participants of the Media Forum,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The reality of the 21st century has refuted the romantic dreams of a conflict-free future. International relations have turned out to be very exposed to intensifying global and regional challenges.
More and more often we are hearing the old kind of geopolitical rhetoric which harks back to the “cold war” days, making global rivalry again the main driver of global politics. Force is again becoming the main way to provide security.
But today there are no simple ways of resolving global problems. Violence gives rise only to violence. Xenophobia, suspicion and fear are already becoming a new disease of the 21st century.
The unique feature about the focus of global developments these days is that the interrelationship of the world cannot be disregarded. Our planet cannot now be perceived just as a battlefield. It is a single organism that needs balance and where each state has its own role to play.
If one country becomes unstable, then the entire global stability is in danger. The international terrorism that struck Afghanistan is spreading to the rest of the world. Paranoia about the possession of weapons of mass destruction is spreading like a dangerous infection, occupying new regions and giving rise to new challenges for the world.
What positive trends may stop such global diseases? What needs to be done first?
One thing is obvious: critical transformations have to take place in global politics, its focus and drivers have to change.
The global mechanisms driving international relations and international security have to change.
First, understanding the world of today as a common live organism requires a conceptual approach to international policy from global competition to global responsibility.
It is now time to apply the principles of “global common sense” and “total responsibility”. They supplement each other and mean that each individual is responsible for his/her country, and each country is responsible for its region, and each region is responsible for the entire world.
Shortly after Kazakhstan gained independence it demonstrated its sensible attitude to global challenges. Our country was the first in the world that shut down the largest nuclear weapons proving ground, voluntarily relinquished nuclear weapons, thus strengthening a foundation for
And the relinquishing of nuclear weapons, in exchange for guarantees by the nuclear powers, was Kazakhstan's strategic stand based on realising our global responsibility to the world. Such a selfless and humane step as that taken by Kazakhstan should be properly valued by the international community as a way of addressing relevant issues concerning the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
We call on other countries to follow our example. And above all we call on those countries that are trying to acquire nuclear weapons.
We took a similarly responsible approach when pursuing regional policy. Kazakhstan proclaimed its responsibility in conjunction with other countries of the region for the future of Central Asia. Developing in a common part of the world, our countries will be able to create a “belt of economic well-being” that would serve as a reliable barrier to international terrorists, religious extremists, drug traffic and illegal migration.
Our country is leading, for example, in terms of investment in the Kyrgyz economy. We are ready to provide Kyrgyzstan with 100m US Dollars to implement large-scale economic projects. In the near future we will ship 1,500 tonnes of wheat as humanitarian aid.
Brotherly economic aid has also been repeatedly provided to the Tajik government.
As part of the humanitarian aid to the Afghans we have shipped 3,000 tonnes of wheat, and under the U. N. Global Food Program we shipped 85,000 tons of grain. We have continued shipping humanitarian goods to that country.
Kazakhstan is currently developing a special action programme to increase humanitarian and economic cooperation, to invest in the Afghan economy and develop training skills. In particular, we plan to construct a hospital and a school in Bamian and Samangan Provinces. The government is ready to encourage Kazakhstan companies to enter the Afghan market.
Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region as a whole could take some responsibility for reconstructing Afghanistan. It is necessary to foster the rehabilitation of that country.
Secondly, I believe that in international relations it is necessary to review the concept of multi-polarity, so that it is perceived in a new way.
Global poles of force should not remain poles of opposition. They have to become poles of sustainability and growth, and relations between them have to support harmonious global development.
Hopes that a single-pole world would make the world more stable have failed. But the objectively emerging multi-polar world is still perceived in the previous geopolitical context, when relations between the centres of influence were viewed in terms of global rivalry and conflicting interests.
It is obvious that such a confrontation may only have an adverse impact. It's a game with zero result.
Kazakhstan's ‘multi-vector' foreign policy was aimed at establishing partnership contacts with all the main poles of influence like Russia, China, the U.S, India, the Arab countries and South-East Asia.
And today we are getting to the point where all the large international actors are committed to the sustainable development of Central Asia.
As a result Kazakhstan's multi-vector foreign policy is aimed particularly at achieving a new conceptual understanding of the multi-polar world.
So the significance of the third principle of behaviour in the international arena is what I would define as the principle of rejection of confrontation and active support for trust and strategic dialogue.
Probably everybody remembers the old story about how you can have anything you want provided that your neighbour can have it doubled, and the man answers: “Put out one of my eyes!” You have to agree that such attitudes that are still held in the world have to be left behind.
As for Kazakhstan, we are actually applying the principles of trust and dialogue as a basis for our international policy and international initiatives.
The main distinctive feature of our country is that we are an ethnically and religiously diverse society. Members of 130 ethnic groups and people practising 40 different faiths live in a home called Kazakhstan.
Factors that in many other countries have caused social unrest and even conflicts, in Kazakhstan have become a basis for strength and success. Applying ideas of ethnic accord and tolerance we have managed to avoid some very big social and economic crises and to escape the shocks that would have resulted.
We are trying to give an example of achievable peace and concord between peoples and religions. To achieve that, patience and the determination to speak out are required. In 2003 and 2006, at my initiative, two Conventions of the Leaders of Global and Traditional Religions have been held in Astana. They gave rise to a unique forum of inter-religious dialogue.
Together with other states, we are ready to provide every support for efforts being made to bring the East and the West closer to each other in understanding the key issues of today's global situation.
The neighbouring countries cannot cooperate properly, cannot make plans for the future, without mutual trust. Lack of trust can sometimes be useful as a method but it always loses out as a principle.
Therefore Kazakhstan was the first country in Eurasia to take the lead in holding the Meeting on Interaction and Trust Measures in Asia, viewing it as a tool to provide stability in the region. I may recall that in 2002 the first success achieved by such a forum was the restoration of dialogue between India and Pakistan at the moment when relations between those nuclear powers were becoming more complicated.
We are confident that the Meeting will continue as an efficient collective mechanism for providing security in Asia.
Facilitating the ideas of trust and strategic dialogue has become one of the central elements in Kazakhstan's foreign policy.
Fourthly, I am deeply confident that today the world should be moving from elite to equal international relations.
It is impossible to ignore the fact that globalisation and the challenges it implies entail a change in the nature of relations between states. In the past large countries could virtually disregard their small or weak neighbours. This is now an unaffordable “luxury”.
The conflict between two small states — Palestine and Israel — has been destabilising the situation in many parts of the world for more than fifty years now.
Developments in two other countries — Afghanistan and Iraq — have become the main factor contributing to the spread of religious extremism and terrorism. Now the entire international community is trying to resolve such problems that initially were local ones: this is the reverse side of globalisation.
I should like to clarify Kazakhstan's stand on the geopolitical situation surrounding Iran. I am convinced that the use of force against such a country as Iran would have a big impact on the entire world. We hope that Iran, our friendly neighbour, will manage to convince the world that it is only engaged in research to develop its peaceful atomic energy programme. This is what the people in our region and in the rest of the world are expecting.
In general, unfortunately, the operating principles of international organizations fail to change fast enough to react to the realities of today. Perhaps it is because such forums as the UN Security Council, NATO. OSCE, G8, the most influential and powerful in the world, cannot stop being elitist in the ways they operate.
Although they have good potential to offer effective solutions, they still do not take up such challenges as the resolution of international conflicts and crises, bridging the economic gap between rich and poor countries, preventing terrorism and extremism, and facilitating
Regarding the inefficient Treaty on the
A narrow circle of countries possessing nuclear weapons perceive the Treaty as an asymmetric agreement which imposes special obligations, supported by sanctions, only on
The lack of equality which underlies the Treaty on
The worst result is that this offers arguments to those states that are trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
As the leader of a country that voluntarily relinquished powerful nuclear weapons, I have the moral right to say that such sources of disagreement need to be fundamentally revised. After several decades in which the Treaty on the
The more states involved the better.
Due to the development of equal communications between large and small states, we now have the chance to make sure that the critical issues affecting many areas of the world are not ignored by the international community.
There should not be a separate agenda for the “first world” states and another for the rest of the world. Despite any difference in development and potential, together they constitute one system. And an imbalance between different elements entails the collapse of the entire system.
Aware of the existence of such interrelations, Kazakhstan has applied for the chairmanship of such a reputable organisation as the OSCE. This is the first time such an application has been submitted by a former Soviet Union republic. By a country which is mostly situated in Asia. By a country which represents a big Central Asian region and is playing an increasingly important role in energy security.
Our vision, our unique experience, our initiative could facilitate the active operations of such an authoritative organization in a number of priority sectors.
Dear participants of the Media Forum,
Global responsibility, strategic dialogue, trust and equality. I think these are the critical elements in an effective global system. Only they will enable us to provide a safe world and give our descendants hope for a better future.
I am confident that such understanding will facilitate a productive discussion of relevant topics at this Media Forum.
The world today is a world of communications which means that dialogue should prevail. And the Eurasian Media Forum is called on to make its contribution to the history of global partnership and cooperation.
I wish you clear and constructive work in the hospitable land of Kazakhstan.
Thank you!
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