Kazakhstan at helm of OSCE

As Kazakhstan prepares to assume the OSCE chairmanship next year, what are the priorities you set for yourself?
We see major challenges and opportunities in the zone of responsibility of the OSCE. Over the past ten years, Europe and the world have been rocked by a string of international events: the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, the global economic crisis, the flaring up of new local conflicts, and the worsening of ethnic tensions in certain countries in Europe. At the same time, recent dynamics in relations between major international players creates opportunities for better understanding and a more productive dialogue.
As OSCE chairman, Kazakhstan will be unwaveringly committed to fundamental principles and values of the OSCE. We will seek to strengthen the trust and mutual understanding between the countries to the west and to the east of Vienna and to ensure the balance of all three baskets of the Organisation. We will build on the results of OSCE work during the chairmanships of our predecessors. We want to contribute to strengthening peace and security, improving confidence within the OSCE, stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok.
Our priorities will include strengthening the European security architecture, developing transit and transport potential, stabilizing OSCE regional partner, Afghanistan, and promoting tolerance and peaceful coexistence in diverse societies, a very timely subject for Europe. We are particularly pleased that OSCE foreign ministers have agreed to hold a high level conference on tolerance and non-discrimination in Astana next June. Kazakhstan will seek to use all of its mediating potential to support existing frameworks of negotiations to settle protracted conflicts in Transdniestria, Nagorno Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. We know the history of the conflicts well, we know the key actors well, and our President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is held in high respect among those actors. All of these reasons give us hope some progress can be achieved.
Kazakhstan will turn 18 on December 16. What has your country achieved during these years, and where is Kazakhstan heading?
Our short 18 years as an independent state are but an instant in terms of history, but equal to a whole epoch given the scope and volume of fundamental economic, social and political reforms. Eighteen years ago, we were one of the poorest countries in the former USSR, and inherited a particularly unfavourable legacy. Our economy was built around a military-industrial complex, 93% of which was directly managed from and for Moscow. This was compounded by two major environmental catastrophes. One and a half million people had been affected by the fallout from the 500 nuclear tests carried out during the Soviet era at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, and the ecosystem of an area the size of present-day Germany had been damaged. The second catastrophe, also due to Soviet mismanagement, was all but disappearance of the Aral Sea during the lifetime of one generation. The wind is blowing salt from what was once the seabed of the Aral Sea across the whole region, and even as far as Europe. In addition, we were and are one of the most ethnically diverse countries of the former Soviet Union, with about 140 different ethnic groups and 46 different religions. Our ethnic patchwork includes Kazakhs, Russians, Koreans, Germans from the Volga region, and many others.
That was our starting point for building Kazakhstan. We believe our biggest achievement during the years of independence is that we have managed to avoid any ethnic conflicts, instead turning our ethnic diversity into strength whilst implementing economic reforms to move to a market economy. In 18 years, Kazakhstan has changed beyond recognition, from one of the worst off fragments of the former Soviet Union into an economically strong and dynamically developing emerging democracy, as well as a worthy partner within the international community.
How would you describe Kazakhstan's relations with Europe, and, in general, Kazakhstan's position in the modern world?
We have been moving closer towards Europe since independence, and this has been a very conscious choice. It is no coincidence that at our President's initiative we have been implementing a special reform programme, 'Path to Europe', for a year now. This programme is designed to bring Kazakhstan closer to European standards in economy, legislation, education and social life.
We believe our interests in closer ties are mutual. Europe is keen to strengthen its cooperation with Kazakhstan and Central Asia in general on issues such as energy security, stability, democratic development, including under the 2007 European Union strategy towards Central Asia. We too are interested in seeing more European investment and technologies coming into Kazakhstan. Already, taken as a whole, the European Union has been Kazakhstan's largest trading partner for the past five years. Our bilateral trade last year amounted to more than 26 billion euros, and we would like to see this figure grow further. Right now, we are engaged in negotiations with the European Union over a new agreement on partnership and cooperation, which, once approved, will allow moving our relations to a qualitatively new level. By the way, Kazakhstan, with more than five percent of its territory located in Europe, which is roughly the size of Greece, and given that our culture is rooted in both the Oriental and the Occidental cultures, is seen by many as Europe in Asia and as Asia in Europe. Since our independence, we have pursued a balanced, pragmatic multi-vector foreign policy seeking equal and commonly beneficial co-operation with all partners. Our President's decision to renounce the world's fourth largest nuclear arsenal and shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site soon after independence presented Kazakhstan to the world as a peaceful nation. This voluntary step was met with appreciation by international institutions and leading states of the world. Today, Kazakhstan has strategic partnerships with countries of the European Union, the United States, Russia, China, and maintains close relations with our neighbours in Central Asia. We believe the unanimous decision by OSCE 56 member states to elect Kazakhstan as chairman of the organisation for 2010 marks Kazakhstan's recognition as an independent state and is an opportunity for us to contribute to security and cooperation in Europe. From that, everybody will benefit; Kazinform refers to New Europe.
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