Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev presents Kazakhstan's chairmanship priorities in the OSCE in UN Security Council in New York

The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakhstan’s Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev presented Kazakhstan’s OSCE chairmanship priorities at the UN Security Council in New York on 5 February and held talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

Addressing the UN Security Council, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office focused on the potential of the OSCE as the world’s largest regional security organization in assisting the UN in the effective prevention of threats and responding to them.

Minister Saudabayev noted that to a large extent the implementation of the priorities of Kazakhstan’s chairmanship will depend on the ability of OSCE Participating States to strengthen mutual trust and eliminate the remaining vestiges of the Cold War dividing lines, remaining in the OSCE area.

The head of Kazakh Foreign Ministry also stressed that Kazakhstan's chairmanship will make every effort to resolve the protracted conflicts, especially in the former Soviet Union. “Given our common history and mental closeness, we hope to give impetus to the efforts of our partners involved in this complicated process,” he stressed. The Foreign Minister added Kazakhstan’s chairmanship will be carefully monitoring the protracted conflicts and any signs of escalation of these conflicts making good use of OSCE preventive mechanisms. The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office announced he will pay visit to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia in mid-February.

In their responses, permanent representatives to UN, including Security Council chairman France, Russia, the United States, Britain, China, as well as Japan and Austria expressed support for Kazakhstan’s chairmanship priorities in the OSCE. President of the Security Council, the Permanent Representative of the France to the UN Gérard Araud, said Paris fully supported Kazakhstan's proposed chairmanship program and the proposal of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev to hold an OSCE summit in 2010.

At a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the two partiesalso noted the effective cooperation between Kazakhstan and the United Nations and discussed its prospects. UN Secretary General congratulated Kazakhstan on assuming the chairmanship of the OSCE and called it a historic event, noting significant opportunities for further strengthening the cooperation between the UN and the OSCE in solving urgent problems in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian area. Ban Ki-Moon also praised the initiatives of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, already supported by the UN General Assembly, declaring 2010 the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures and August 29 an International Day against Nuclear Tests. In addition, the importance was noted of the entry into force of the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty in 2009.

The two parties also considered the agenda of the forthcoming visit by Ban Ki-Moon to Kazakhstan next April which is to give a new impetus to the entire range of interaction.