Official Statements:

Remarks by H.E. Kanat Saudabayev,

Secretary of State of the Republic of Kazakhstan, at the conference “From Niigata to the world:

renewed determination and

action towards a nuclear weapon-free world”

(Niigata, Japan, 26 August 2009)

Dear conference participants! Ladies and gentlemen!

First of all, I would like to thank the organizers of the conference for their great work and the invitation to address such a distinguished audience, and the governments of Japan and the Niigata prefecture for their warm hospitality.

At the beginning of my remarks I have the honour to read to you the message from Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

Astana, Akorda

03/08/2009

To participants of the 21st UN

Conference on Disarmament Issues

I send warm greetings to participants and guests of the 21st UN Conference on Disarmament Issues and sincerely support your efforts aimed at non-proliferation and reduction of weapons of mass destruction.

Japan and Kazakhstan are countries that have suffered the most from nuclear weapons. August 29, 2009, will mark the 60th anniversary of the first Soviet nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk test site. During the four decades, almost 500 nuclear tests were carried out at the test site as a result of which more than a million and a half people in Kazakhstan suffered and a great harm was done to vast territories of our country.

On August 29, 1991, I made a decision to permanently shut down the Semipalatinsk test site, and a year and a half later an already independent Kazakhstan voluntarily renounced the world’s fourth largest nuclear and missile arsenal, which had included 1,150 nuclear warheads. By these steps, Kazakhstan has charted a way towards a nuclear weapon-free world and, by following successful development, has proven that dialog and peaceful and trustful cooperation with other countries serve as much more solid security guarantees than huge arsenals of the deadliest weapons.

Kazakhstan’s example becomes especially timely and needed today when the world is facing further proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, while the threat of their use by international terrorist organizations is also growing.

Recently, we have called on the United Nations to proclaim August 29 the World Day of Renunciation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, and we are glad this proposal has received wide international support.

Today, nuclear weapon states themselves should serve as the best example of nuclear disarmament. That is why we welcome pledges from the presidents of the United States and Russia to further reduce their nuclear arsenals. We believe the time has come for decisive actions on behalf of the entire mankind to reverse the deadly weapons race and free the world from the nuclear “sword of Damocles” hanging over all of us.

I believe your conference will help promote further the cause of non-proliferation and reduction of nuclear weapons. Only by joining efforts, will we be able to make our world safer and better.

I wish you all productive work and further successes in your noble activities!

Nursultan Nazarbayev

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

We in Kazakhstan have special feelings towards the people of Japan. Having experienced the horrors of nuclear weapons ourselves, we deeply understand the pain and suffering befallen the people of Japan in 1945. As is known, the cumulative power of devices detonated by the Soviet Union at the Semipalatinsk test site equals to 2,500 nuclear bombs dropped by the United States on Nagasaki. In addition to human suffering, these explosions have caused radioactive contamination of territories equaling in size to three-quarters of the territory of Japan.

We are also deeply grateful to the Japanese for major assistance in eliminating consequences of nuclear testing in Kazakhstan. Japan is one of the largest international donors for the rehabilitation of the Semipalatinsk region.

Ladies and gentlemen!

Today, international understanding is growing of the need to fully rid our planet of the threat of further proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Similarly, the recognition is growing of the importance for the international community to join efforts to work out a ‘roadmap’ towards a world free from nuclear weapons. In this light, Kazakhstan’s nuclear disarmament example could be very useful and relevant.

Kazakhstan’s first days of independence saw no lack of foreign emissaries who urged President Nazarbayev to keep nuclear weapons, left over from the Soviet Union, promising Kazakhstan major financial rewards and prestige as “the world’s first and only Muslim nuclear weapon power.” A significant part of our elite was also in favour of keeping our nuclear potential, which, in their view, would have propelled a previously oppressed and unknown Kazakhstan into the club of nuclear powers. So it would be fair to note that it was President Nazarbayev who made the courageous and wise decision to renounce the nuclear weapons. Relying on the strong popular support and having recognized that long-term security and prosperity can only be guaranteed through peaceful development in cooperation with the international community, President Nazarbayev has made a historic choice in favour of nuclear disarmament.

Time has proven that strategic step right. Instead of becoming a new nuclear weapon state subject to sanctions and censure, Kazakhstan presented itself as a peaceful country, a worthy and predictable partner of the civilized world.

Such a principled approach conditioned Kazakhstan’s participation in the U.S. Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction programme thanks to which we have completely rid ourselves of nuclear weapons and their infrastructure. Under this programme, the nuclear weapons testing infrastructure at the Semipalatinsk test site was fully destroyed, including almost 200 tunnels and bore holes. One thousand and forty nuclear warheads of one megaton TNT equivalent each, 104 SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 40 TU-95 heavy bombers armed with X-55 cruise missiles with 370 tactical nuclear charges were either destroyed in Kazakhstan or removed from our territory. One hundred and forty-eight silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles were destroyed. Today, our cooperation with the United States under the Nunn-Lugar programme is recognized as one of the most effective models of removing nuclear dangers, and continues successfully and efficiently.

Our firm commitment to non-proliferation and consistent active diplomacy have conditioned Kazakhstan’s receiving guarantees of security and territorial integrity from the five recognized nuclear weapon states. This has helped ensure favorable external conditions for our country’s development, the attraction of foreign investment, as well as for social, economic and political reforms.

Kazakhstan’s contribution to maintaining the nuclear non-proliferation regime is not limited to shutting down the test site and eliminating weapons of mass destruction. In partnership with the international community, Kazakhstan implements new concrete projects, such as the down blending of three tons of highly enriched uranium jointly with the U.S.-based Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Kazakhstan participates actively in relevant international initiatives. In 2005, Kazakhstan became part of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. In 2006, Kazakhstan became a co-founder of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, launched by Russia and the U.S. In 2007, the third meeting of countries participating in this initiative took place in Astana.

Last March, the Treaty on Central Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone entered into force. That treaty has created the first nuclear weapon free zone fully located in the Northern Hemisphere and the first such zone neighboring two nuclear weapon states. This is the only such zone on whose territory nuclear weapons had been located previously. By this step, Kazakhstan and other countries of our region have reconfirmed their commitment to disarmament and non-proliferation.

At the same time, we believe that time has come for a major strengthening of the non-proliferation regime and the reduction of weapons of mass destruction. The entire set of agreements regulating this sphere should be aimed at achieving global actions and responsibility of all countries, primarily nuclear weapon states, for reducing nuclear arsenals, followed by gradual and complete elimination thereof.

In particular, Kazakhstan stands for the soonest entrance into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In 2008 Kazakhstan hosted the Integrated Field Experiment organized by the CTBT preparatory commission. This large-scale endeavor brought a meaningful contribution to strengthening the non-proliferation regime.

The world needs to join efforts to revive the chances of the CTBT for existence as an effective measure of containing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Through joint efforts, we must convince the nine countries which have so far either not signed or ratified the treaty and without whose participation it is both meaningless and invalid, to make those steps. We are encouraged by the desire of President Barack Obama to give a new impetus to this process and send the Treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification.

Further, we believe it is critical to launch negotiations over the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty as soon as possible.

Last but by no means least, Kazakhstan proposes to strengthen and make more effective the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The world needs to recognize that NPT became asymmetrical providing sanctions only against non-nuclear-weapon states. Calling for banning the development of nuclear weapons, nuclear powers themselves should show an example of reduction and renunciation of nuclear arsenals.

In this connection, we welcome recent initiatives of U.S. and Russian presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in this area, which echo approaches outlined by President Nazarbayev on numerous occasions at the UN, in personal meetings with leaders of nuclear and non-nuclear-weapon states. By showing a disarmament example, nuclear weapon states strengthen their moral right to demand renouncing nuclear weapon ambitions from other countries. Kazakhstan is calling on Russia and the United States, as well as all nuclear powers, to live up to their obligations regarding deeper reductions in nuclear arsenals.

The future of the non-proliferation regime and prospects of global nuclear disarmament will, to the great extent, depend on the outcome of the NPT Review Conference in New York next May. The noble goals, envisaged in the Treaty in 1968 regarding the prevention of nuclear weapon proliferation beyond the nuclear “five” and the disarmament of nuclear arsenals of these five nations, have not, basically, been achieved. The Treaty has not only been unable to prevent the appearance of new nuclear weapon states, but has also not stopped the modernization of weapons of mass destruction by the members of the nuclear club. That is why Kazakhstan, in partnership with other countries, will seek to work to ensure the success of the Review Conference which, at a minimum, would be expressed in the strengthening of all three pillars of the NPT – disarmament, non-proliferation and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Yet, we are convinced that the mankind should make an even more far-reaching step. Our President has called for the development of a new Treaty on universal horizontal and vertical non-proliferation of nuclear weapon. We believe this idea is worthy of thorough consideration at the international level.

Next year, the United States is planning to host a global nuclear security summit to discuss the entire set of problems in this area. The White House has invited President Nazarbayev to participate in the summit. We intend to spare no efforts in ensuring the success of this international forum in promoting further progress in disarmament.

We are fully aware of obstacles we all face on this path. As President Nazarbayev said, “Unfortunately, few countries have followed Kazakhstan’s example, and the nuclear threat, like an irradiated organism, continues to mutate acquiring new forms. A recent nuclear test by North Korea, controversies over Iran’s nuclear programme, protracted tensions between nuclear powers India and Pakistan, attempts by terrorists to acquire their own nuclear weapons – all of this has yet again shown how fragile the balance in the world now is. Even today Kazakhstan’s nuclear disarmament example is a real alternative to process which reminds of a world sliding on the edge of a precipice.”

In this connection I would like to draw your attention to President Nazarbayev’s proposal to proclaim August 29 as the World Day of Renunciation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. This proposal has already received wide international coverage and the support of UN Secretary General and the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Conference which brings together 57 nations. It is important now that this proposal is supported by member states of the largest and most respected international organization and becomes the official decision of the United Nations. We believe such a decision will give a powerful boost to the global process of non-proliferation and reduction of nuclear weapons.

Ladies and gentlemen!

Possessing some of the world’s largest reserves of natural uranium and already being the second largest producer thereof, Kazakhstan stands for the development of peaceful atomic energy under the IAEA guarantees. We believe every state has the right to develop peaceful nuclear technologies if it meets all the requirements of transparency under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and IAEA agreements, including the Additional Protocol.

Kazakhstan intends to move further down that road and develop peaceful nuclear energy cooperation with Russia, Japan, the United States, France and other countries under strict control over technologies from the IAEA.

Kazakhstan supports international efforts to improve the security of the nuclear fuel cycle and remove risks of proliferation of fissile materials. Last April, President Nazarbayev declared Kazakhstan’s readiness to consider hosting an international nuclear fuel bank under IAEA auspices. We believe Kazakhstan’s candidacy to the fullest extent possible meets all requirements to a country that the international community can entrust with such a bank. We believe that, with the good will of all countries interested in safe development of peaceful atomic energy, this idea will be implemented, and the international community will add another effective mechanism to the system of non-proliferation.

Ladies and gentlemen!

At the time of globalization, and especially during the unprecedented upheavals in the world economy, we should look for and develop new ways of closer cooperation in solving both economic and political problems. Of course, it is hard to overestimate the importance of more decisive steps by the mankind towards nuclear disarmament. Today, a critical moment has arrived, for as large as the challenges are, just as unique are opportunities for success offered by modern geopolitical environment.

A Japanese proverb says nanakorobi yaoki meaning stumbling seven times, but recovering eight. I am confident that if all the people of good will from different countries, like you, who sincerely seek to build a nuclear weapon-free world, join their efforts and fight consistently and persistently for this high and noble goal, we will be able to free our planet from the nuclear threat.

Thank you for your attention.