On the occasion of beginning Kazakhstan’s non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council for 2017-18

POLICY ADDRESS TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

BY HIS EXCELLENCY MR NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

KAZAKHSTAN’S CONCEPT AND VISION

for Sustaining Global Partnerships for a Secure, Just and Prosperous World

The Republic of Kazakhstan began its duties as a non-permanent member on the United Nations Security Council on 1 January 2017, for the next two years.

Kazakhstan is grateful to all the UN member states that supported its candidature. We consider our election to the Security Council as a great responsibility and an evidence of the international community’s trust in our commitment to peace. We also view it as a recognition of our efforts to strengthen the role of the UN in maintaining global peace and security.

We also welcome H.E. António Guterres, new Secretary-General of the United Nations, who commenced his tenure on 1 January. Kazakhstan fully shares and supports his vision, priorities and noble efforts, which are fully in accordance with the ideals and principles that Kazakhstan will champion on the Council.

2 March 2017 marks the 25^th Anniversary of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s membership of the United Nations.

Over this last quarter century, our country has demonstrated its total steadfastness to the purposes and objectives of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms and principles of international law.

Kazakhstan will work in a balanced and unbiased manner regarding all agenda items addressed by the Council, keeping in mind the paramount importance of maintaining and strengthening peace and security. We intend to work on an equal basis with all Security Council members to promote compromise and consensus in order to help achieve these goals.

We will make every effort to restore and develop cooperation among all UN Member States with particular focus on strengthening trust between the permanent members of the Council.

Our country will strive for meaningful cooperation with the Security Council and its subsidiary bodies, as well as with the UN Secretariat and the relevant departments to achieve the Council’s agenda.

We will seek to strengthen the understanding of Security Council members on the importance of creating a renewed model of international relations that accurately reflects the realities of the 21st century and shapes a collective responsibility for meeting global and regional challenges.

Based on such guiding principles, Kazakhstan will work over the next two years on the following priorities.

FIRST, having closed down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and been the first country to give up its nuclear arsenal twenty-five years ago, Kazakhstan’s prime goal is to help ensure humankind’s survival through a world free of nuclear weapons.

We will continue consolidating global efforts to free the planet from nuclear arms by strengthening and expanding the non-proliferation regime, and through strict compliance with the UN Security Council Resolution 1540.

While welcoming the agreements reached on the Iran’s Nuclear Programme and encouraging their implementation, Kazakhstan also believes they provide a model for use in similar situations and crises. We stand ready to actively cooperate with the Council’s Facilitator on Security Council Resolution 2231.

In this context, Kazakhstan sees as important the need to find an urgent and constructive solution to the issue of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and proposes an immediate resumption of multilateral talks on the matter.

Kazakhstan calls on all Member States, especially the Security Council’s permanent members, to set a goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons by the UN’s 100th Anniversary in 2045.

SECOND. Kazakhstan’s efforts in the Security Council will be aimed at creating conditions to eliminate the threat of a global war by preventing and ending military confrontations at regional and global levels.

We are convinced that peace and the renunciation of war as a means of settling inter-state problems is essential to the survival of humankind. In this context, Kazakhstan intends to promote the implementation of my Manifesto ‘The World. The 21st Century’ that sets out how we can provide the conditions to end conflicts and violence.

Kazakhstan calls for further improvements in the United Nations peacekeeping system and intends to make its own contribution by increasing the number of its military observers and peacekeepers deployed to UN missions.

During our time on the Council, we will work towards the peaceful settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation and conflicts in the Middle East, Afghanistan and the CIS. We also intend to strive for the de-escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and crisis resolution in Africa and Asia.

THIRD. Kazakhstan is the first Central Asian state elected to the UN Security Council.

We intend to use our membership to promote the interests of all countries of our region to ensure its stability and security, to effectively respond to regional challenges and threats, to strengthen cooperation and promote its growth and development.

We are convinced that a model for a regional zone of peace, security, cooperation and development can be generated and tested in Central Asia, based on the respect and balancing the interests of all stakeholders.

During our chairmanship on the Council, we intend to initiate broad, balanced, meaningful and result-oriented discussions on the situation in Afghanistan and how to promote peace, security and development in Central Asia. We will strive for the adoption of the special outcome document from these deliberations.

We want to see, as speedily as possible, Afghanistan’s return to peace and stability, and believe that broad assistance must be given to help the country in its economic and social development, in its efforts to counter threats to its security, and to strengthen capacity-building. We are ready to work tirelessly as Chair of the 1988 Committee on Afghanistan/Taliban.

FOURTH, international terrorism and violent extremism are today some of the main and acute challenges to global peace and security. Crises in many regions of the world are caused primarily by the activities of international terrorist groups. It is only with the combined efforts of all states, international and regional organizations and other key stakeholders that we can put an end to this scourge. To achieve which, requires, above all, that the dialogue between political and religious leaders is intensified to help counter violent extremism and radicalism.

Kazakhstan will chair the Security Council 1267 Committee on ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida to help achieve these goals.

In this context, we plan to invite the UN Member States and the UN Security Council to develop the Astana Code of Conduct for International Anti-Terrorist Operations. We believe this can serve as the basis for the formation of the Global Antiterrorist Coalition (Network) under the auspices of the UN, which I proposed in my statement at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly.

FIFTH. Sustainable global peace will not be possible without comprehensive peace and security in Africa.

As an  Observer-State of the African Union and Chair of the Security Council Committee on Somalia and Eritrea, Kazakhstan will contribute to international efforts for national reconciliation and restoration of peace in the region of the Horn of Africa, and also across the continent as a whole.

SIXTH. We are convinced that long-term stability and sustainable peace can only be achieved by understanding the strong connection between peace, security and development. This Security-Development Nexus should be based on global action to prevent wars and conflicts, protect human rights, deliver Sustainable Development Goals and combat climate change, including through implementation of commitments by all Parties to the Paris Climate Agreement.

Kazakhstan is determined to continue contributing to sustainable development. Among practical steps we are taking is hosting ‘EXPO-2017’ on the theme ‘Energy of the Future’ in Astana this summer. Our aim is to help promote sustainable energy and minimize the consequences of climate change which are both important components of preventive diplomacy.

SEVENTH. Over the next two years, Kazakhstan will support efforts to improve and adapt the Security Council and the United Nations system so that it is better equipped to overcome contemporary challenges and threats to humankind and to increase its leadership role in global affairs.

The United Nations, as well as, the other global structures of the post-war period must meet the needs of the 21st century.

Kazakhstan will work to enhance cooperation between all collective security regional organizations of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa.

To consolidate efforts and provide the collective political will to enhance global and regional security and stability, and to strengthen trust among states, we propose to convene every year or every two years, a Security Council meeting at the level of Heads of State and Government.

The objectives and tasks set out in this Policy Address outline the political priorities and practical components for Kazakhstan’s non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council in 2017-2018.

Kazakhstan is determined to work with all Member States of the Council on these priorities, without political expediency, and in an open, objective, balanced, responsible and constructive way.

Kazakhstan counts on the support of partners for its initiatives, which have the important goal of making the world in the 21st century secure, just and prosperous one.

Astana, 1 January 2017