The Conference hears from Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) met on Friday morning to hear from the Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, Mr. Kanat Saudabayev. He pointed out that Kazakhstan voluntarily renounced the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal and shut down the nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk, making the case that Kazakhstan’s model of disarmament could be an example for others.

Mr. Saudabayev also argued that the world must overcome the stagnation in the global disarmament process and highlighted the Washington summit on nuclear security in April and the NPT Review Conference in May as key events for a possible breakthrough. In terms of the Review Conference, he argued for the development of “clear mechanisms of putting pressure on those nuclear-weapon states that are operating outside of the framework of the NPT and to prevent withdrawal from the Treaty.”

He also brought to the Conference’s attention to the many efforts to enhance nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament that Kazakhstan has pursued, such as encouraging the entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and its initiative for 29 August to become the International Day against Nuclear Tests; institutionalization of the Central Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone; participating in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism; and being party to such regimes as the Hague Code of Conduct, the Krakow Initiative, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and the Zangger Committee.

With regards to the agenda of the CD, Mr. Saudabayev argued that the peaceful use of outer space is one of its most pressing items. Due to Kazakhstan’s involvement in international space cooperation, much due to hosting the Baikonur cosmodrome, Mr. Saudabayev argued, “outer space must remain a central concern of the Conference,” and called “for strict observance of the principle of peaceful activities in outer space.” He also supported the commencement of negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty and argued that it is time to proceed on the elaboration of international legally-binding negative security assurances.

Next meeting
The next plenary meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 9 March at 10:00 AM, when the CD will hear a statement by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom on the occasion of the International Women’s Day.