KAZAKH LEADER WIELDS INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITY
27.04.2010Speaking in Almaty, he also urged the people of neighbouring Kirghizstan to ensure a rapid return to peace and stability after the recent political upheaval across the nearby Central Asian frontier.
The Kazakh leader was speaking with the added international and regional authority of his country’s current chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which was the theme of the first full debate in the Forum.
In his welcoming remarks to the ninth annual Forum, President Nursultan recalled that Kazakhstan had been a strong advocate at the recent Global Summit in Washington of measures to achieve better international control over programmes for developing nuclear power. The uncontrolled spread of nuclear weapons was making them more accessible to international terrorists. “There is a great risk of the use of ‘dirty bombs’”, he warned.
Without mentioning any specific countries, he said: “We believe that all countries have an equal right to carry out atomic power research. At the same time, no one should cross the line separating a peaceful nuclear programme from a military programme.”
Repeating his call for the establishment of nuclear-free zones, in the Middle East and elsewhere, President Nursultan stressed the need to reassure the non-nuclear countries that might agree to take part.
“It is important for the world's nuclear nations to give all states participating in such zones solid guarantees of security and support in developing peaceful nuclear programmes,” he argued.
Turning to the Central Asian region, the leader of Kazakhstan deplored the recent bloodshed in neighbouring Kirghizstan and described events there as “a simple power struggle” between two elite groups, not a popular revolution in the true sense. Two serious political crises there in the past five years had shown that conflict was inevitable when the authorities fail to improve the living conditions of the people, to guarantee security and to ensure ethnic and religious tolerance.
President Nursultan said Kazakhstan, which had been actively involved in helping Kirghizstan to resolve its internal crisis, would continue to provide humanitarian and economic assistance to its neighbour, but he warned that the Kirgiz people must put their own state in order.
“At the same time, I again call on all political forces in Kyrgyzstan, the entire people, to ensure the rapid re-establishment of peace, stability, law and order, without which neither investment nor development is possible,” he declared.
“Such developments once again confirm the relevance of Kazakhstan's initiatives on economic integration of the countries of the region for common development and common security,” he added.
Dr Dariga Nazarbayeva, chair of the Forum’s organizing committee, stressed that Kazakhstan’s rapid intervention had prevented a potential large-scale civil clash which could have had a catastrophic consequences for the whole of Central Asia. “However, it is premature to relax,” she added. “The situation is Kirgizstan is still complex. Sovereignty is being currently tested there and we have to watch the situation very carefully,” she said.
President Nazarbayev, reflecting on the importance of Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the OSCE, the President noted that he had been able to use the authority and influence of the pan-European organization to help resolve the Central Asian crisis.
As the first country from the CIS and from Central Asia to assume this post, Kazakhstan was in a strong position to enhance the influence and authority of the OSCE.
“We believe that the OSCE, stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, should take a very active part in forming a new architecture for the security of the world,” he said.
You can comment this article after authorisation.
Site developed