Remarks by Secretary of State - Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan H.E. Kanat Saudabayev at the plenary session of 17th OSCE Ministerial Council

(Athens, December 1-2, 2009)

Mr. Chairman,

Dear colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First, let me sincerely thank Greece as impersonated by Prime Minister and Foreign Minister George Papandreou for an impressive Chairmanship in the OSCE and excellent arrangement of our council here, in Athens.

I would also like to express my deep appreciation to the OSCE Secretariat led by Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut for a superbly meaningful support of our Organization’s activity.

Dear colleagues,

Thanks to a political will shown by a number of OSCE member states there are some visible positive tendencies in regulation of some “protracted conflicts”, relations between some countries are going through a ‘reset’, contours of prospective dialog on key issues of the Organization agenda are become clear in this outgoing year.

Initiated by the Greek Chairmanship a “Corfu process” has brought a significant impetus to realize importance of the wholesome and integral security in OSCE area. All of us agree on the necessity of joint efforts, and Kazakhstan as the Chair-in-Office intends to promote this important initiative.

In this regard I would like to stress that Kazakhstan as a Chairman-in-Office will strictly follow the OSCE’s fundamental principles and values, with full account of interests of all of its members in order to strengthen trust and mutual understanding between the states to the west and east of Vienna. Kazakhstan will do its utmost to provide equal and balanced content of three dimensions of Organization activity.

Mr. Chairman,

Kazakhstan will continue taking measures to counteract new challenges in OSCE area and intend to be co-sponsor of the number of the new projects in the field of combating terrorism, all kinds of illegal trafficking and strengthening borders.

We confirm our strong support to keep European regime of conventional armed forces control and confidence - and security-building measures. We are sure that all the states should make maximum efforts to overcome nowadays existing deadlock situation regarding the issue of Adapted Agreement on Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. And with all respect consider suggested by Russian Federation the draft of the Treaty on European Security. In the period of world economy recession it is obvious that attention to the second “basket” is highly increased.

We are highly appreciate to all OSCE member-states for active participation in the work of the First Preparatory conference of the 18th Economic and Environmental Forum which was successfully held in Astana in October 2009.   

Promotion of proper management in border crossing area for the people, commodities and services are of interest of the whole OSCE community and we hope that this task will have practical realization.

Another important issue is the problem of environmental safety in OSCE area, among which one of the most critical is the tragedy of Aral sea. And our Organization should fully use its potential to solve this problem.

We think that the dialogue within OSCE on the problem of energy safety should be prolonged on the basis of the positions of all the parties involved as well as taking into consideration Kazakhstan significant role as a world energy power.

Thanks to the efforts of the Greek chairmanship definite progress and mutual understanding were achieved in the field of OSCE status. We intend to continue coordination of the working process under the draft of special documents in this regard.

Kazakhstan supports activity of the most important and unique OSCE structure – its missions, interacting with the host countries.

Dear colleagues,

I would like also to highlight successful holding of Warsaw annual meeting, in which, besides official delegation, more than 50 Kazakhstan NGOs have participated.

Kazakhstan will maintain importance of human aspect in OSCE activity. Following and protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, democracy development, combating intolerance and discrimination of any kind, are undivided component of the wholesome security in OSCE area. Initiatives of the previous Chairmen-in-Office will be continued in this dimension.

I am very grateful to all state-participants for support given by their decision to hold OSCE comprehensive conference on the fight against intolerance in 2010 at a high level. This fact confirms once again Organization commitments to promote tolerance, dialogue between civilizations, cultures in OSCE space.

Kazakhstan considers tolerance and un-discrimination as a key factors of stability and intend to involve whole OSCE potential to develop dialogue between religions, cultures and civilizations, overcome of nationalism, religious intolerance, racism and xenophobia.    

Our multinational and multi-confessional country is much experienced in order to provide peace and accord. Moreover, under the leadership of the President N.Nazarbayev we can share our experience with the rest of the world.

In this regard we pay great importance to hold a meeting of OSCE national contact offices on the issues of combating hate crimes in Albania in 2010.      

Next year we are planning to devote two extra OSCE meetings to the issues of promotion gender policy and participation of women in political and public life as well as combating trafficking of children. We are also considering an opportunity of co-sponsorship of some projects under the auspices of ODIHR.

Special attention we pay to the possibility of holding in 2010 Conference, entitled to the 20-year anniversary of Copenhagen Act – basic document in human dimension.

Under Kazakhstan organizational and financial co-sponsorship agenda of the conference will include a review of realization by OSCE member-states commitments in the field of fundamental rights and freedoms of the human-being. I would like to express my gratitude to Denmark and the ODIHR for their support in organization of this workshop.

Dear colleagues,

Focusing on the human “basket” in OSCE activity we intend to make our contribution to develop further this key dimension.

Strong support to this process we demonstrate, first, in our country. Confirmation of this fact is concrete measures to improve Kazakhstan legislation. This year important amendments in the legislation on elections, political parties, mass media, and local government were introduced, in accordance with the OSCE recommendations.

Recently the National Plan of Actions in the Field of Human Rights for 2009-2012 and the new Concept of Legal Policy for 2010-2020 were adopted, implementation of which made Kazakhstan closer to international standards.

We intend to adopt legislation on equal rights and equal opportunities for women and men, on combating domestic violence, introduce amendments into legislation on protection of the rights of children.

Further steps of our country in the field of democratization will be fully responded with the tasks and goals, which we will follow as a Chair of OSCE.

As a Chair in the Group on Cooperation with the OSCE Mediterranean Partners, Kazakhstan would like to thank all partner states for their support and understanding, intensive involvement in OSCE activity. In order to strengthen stability and security internationally we are planning to intensify cooperation with our Asian partners next year, taking into account geographical situation of Kazakhstan and our intentions in this direction.

In this context we will promote all mentioned approaches not only in the framework of our Presidency, but within such multilateral structures as CICA, OIC, CIS, etc. We also intend to support developing of inter-institutional cooperation in order to bring new impetus of the process.

Dear colleagues,

In 2010 Kazakhstan will make all efforts to keep Organization serve as a key platform for political dialogue to solve challenges and threats we all face.

With all this in mind President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan proposed to convene in the year of the 35th anniversary of signing the Helsinki Final Act, the 65th anniversary of the end of Second World War, and the 20th anniversary of the Paris Charter for a new Europe OSCE Summit.

All these dates give us an opportunity to a serious analysis of the OSCE role to keep safety and stability on a huge territory from Vancouver to Vladivostok.

Agenda of the Summit could include topical issues of further promotion of the “Corfu process”, formation of common Trans-Atlantic and Euro-Asian architecture of safety, rehabilitation and assistance to Afghanistan.

Recently we have signed a longstanding Agreement with the Government of Afghanistan on cooperation in the field of education, which provides granting by the Kazakh Government 50 million USD for more than 1,000 Afghans to study in Kazakh universities.

According to our preliminary consultations, a number of countries supporting this initiative on OSCE Summit by President Nazarbayev is constantly increasing.

We do hope that today in 10 years of Istanbul Summit has being passed, it is the right time to give a thorough assessment of new challenges and threats, define OSCE key priorities in the future to the benefit of our common interests.

I would like to apply once again to distinguished colleagues to demonstrate political will and strategic vision and include in the draft of OSCE Ministerial Council Final Declaration text to support this initiative.

Dear participants,

In conclusion, I assure that Kazakhstan’s actions as a Chairman-in-Office will be based on principles of mutual trust, respect, and understanding, as well as on fundamental values of the OSCE.

Thank you for your attention.