Kazakhstan is actually one of the very strongest leaders of nuclear weapon-related issues, Izumi Nakamitsu
Kazakhstan is marking the 33rd anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. The Republic of Kazakhstan became the first country in history to renounce nuclear weapons and close the deadly testing site. Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, focused on prospects for comprehensive cooperation between Kazakhstan and UN institutions in ensuring regional and international security, disarmament, and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in an exclusive interview with New Time correspondent Balzhan Samigullina.
Ms. Nakamitsu, your visit to Astana is now happening on the occasion of the International Day against the nuclear tests. I wonder why did you pick exactly Kazakhstan to visit on the eve of this event? 33 years ago, Kazakhstan closed its Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. So I think maybe there might be a link between these events.
Absolutely. Thank you for having me. The official reason why I came here is, of course, connected with the Government of Kazakhstan. We are co-organizing the workshop on nuclear-weapon-free zones, which is still being held at the Foreign Ministry conference room. Yesterday I opened that conference. But also it was very important for me to visit Kazakhstan again, as Kazakhstan is actually one of the very strongest leaders of nuclear weapon-related issues. As you say, International Day Against Nuclear Test is on the 29th August. It's in the margins of that time period that was initiated by Kazakhstan, and now it has become a very important commemoration of nuclear test. It was on the occasion of the Semipalatinsk polygon closure. For the United Nations, it's very important to have a very close dialogue and consultations with the Government officials. I had an excellent meeting with the foreign minister and, of course, with His Excellency the President as well to discuss some of the key joint priorities for Kazakhstan and the United Nations. I thank the Government of Kazakhstan for the strong leadership and support for my office on many related issues.
How do you think, what's the role of countries like Kazakhstan and the whole Central Asian region for assisting the global efforts against nuclear tests, nuclear weapons – disarmament, in general?
Kazakhstan is a strong leader in several different fronts related to nuclear disarmament. You are one of the initiators, strong voices against nuclear tests, a very strong advocate and a supporter for the Comprehensive Nuclear Testment Treaty, and to the whole issues related to nuclear testing at the United Nations. But it's not limited to nuclear testing. For example, this year, we had a second preparatory meeting of the NPT, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. That second priority committee meeting was chaired by Kazakhstan. So, Kazakhstan is one of the leaders of those NPT processes currently. And, also next year in March in New York, there is the third meeting of states parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (NPNW), another very important international treaty mechanism related to the elimination of nuclear weapons.
What are your hopes for this meeting?
We hope that there will be a strong movement towards developing, and strengthening this new treaty. TPNW is still a new treaty mechanism. There is much work that still needs to be done to increase the number of states parties, universalization efforts, developing mechanisms, which is within a very new approach in the nuclear disarmament field. All these issues actually are under the leadership of Kazakhstan. It's not just in the TPNW framework, but also to the General Assembly.
You mentioned that new mechanisms are going to be discussed. Is there any announcement that needs to be done now? In what exactly points they will be focused on?
We recently did a secretary-general's report on victims' assistance issues. And one of the things that was promoted in that report was the potential establishment of a voluntary trust fund, so that the victims will be really assisted. We hope that those discussions will also make some progress in the context of a general assembly, in addition to the treaty mechanisms in TPNW. So that's another front that you are meeting. And then, of course, this workshop that we are currently doing in Kazakhstan, on issues related to nuclear-weapon-free- zones. You are again an initiator of the Central Asia free zone.
The treaty was signed in Semipalatinsk. It's a very symbolic meaning. And the work that we're doing together with Kazakhstan and couple of other countries now is to make sure that those different free zones around the world will be able to work together more closely, share information, lessons learned. And potentially also feed into the ongoing process of creating a new free zone, for example, in the Middle East. And potentially, in the environment of very difficult security conditions today there might be other regions of the world that might be interested in considering such free zones in the future. So, we want to make sure that there will be good brainstorming, visionary discussions that will lead to a future progress in those freeze on issues. It's been very interesting conversations that have been here in Astana.
You already touched on the overall situation around nuclear disarmament. The NPT was signed in 1945. But still, after this year, even though countries signed this document, there are other countries who became nuclear-armed after this event. So which soft power mechanism would you use against these countries to somehow balance these countries, especially taking into account Middle Eastern region which always has these geopolitical tensions?
I think it's very important, first and foremost, that the geopolitical situation in the world is actually going towards a very concerning, worrying situation. The big powers with nuclear weapons are in a very competitive path. The tensions between them definitely increasing. And, of course, you mentioned the Middle East, but also in Ukraine, those security concerns are really there. And behind those conflicts, there are always nuclear weapons issues behind it as a background. We say at the UN, the risks of nuclear weapons actually being used. I don't think any country would like to have a deliberate nuclear confrontation. I don't believe that. But potentially, any miscalculation and misunderstandings leading to a sudden escalation of tension, which is not contained to an uncontrollable escalation that could potentially end or result in the use of nuclear weapons. So we're living in a very dangerous,environment at the moment. The nuclear weapons issues are really at the center of all these security concerns. But for us, that is precisely why we need to actually think about how to make sure that the frameworks like the NPT remain.
Now we can see that nuclear wars are more than real with today's realities. How to balance it, because this document doesn't have obligatory character, right? It has a recommendation function. So how to make it a little more convincing so that the countries cannot avoid it anyhow?
The NPT has Article 6, which is legally binding on nuclear weapon states. They are supposed to be pursuing nuclear disarmament. As you say, things are very difficult. They're not necessarily making progress. Quite the contrary, they're going backward. There has been qualitative nuclear arms race, modernization efforts of nuclear weapons. And potentially also, in terms of numbers of nuclear weapons might be actually increasing. So it's going backwards. How do we change the situation? That's exactly why countries like Kazakhstan are so important. I read the recent article by the President on middle powers, and the multinationalism. That's exactly what we think is key in those multinational platforms, whether that is the United Nations or treaty mechanisms like NPT. It's the middle countries that can actually work to build bridges between those divided positions. Huge tensions and divisions between big military powers. They can influence on course of events and negotiations and then bring those countries back towards a more peaceful and more secure path.
Disarmament is not a utopian idealistic approach. It's actually a security instrument. Throughout the history, we know that many states, especially during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union at the time engaged directly with each other because they understood that uncontrollable arms race, increase of military powers will, at some point, backfire on them. It's not in their security interest. So they really directly engaged with each other to make sure that there is diplomacy for arms control and disarmament. It's a security instrument. And that's exactly why we need - the middle powers to be working with us, so that they can build bridges, they can influence on those military powers to come to the table and then come to a common position. We need to work with those middle powers.
Yeah, but now we can see that, unfortunately, NPT was not signed by the nuclear-armed countries like Russia and Israel. At what stage are negotiations to sign this treaty by these countries?
We are already in the review on current review process. The next review conference will be in 2026. So we're in the preparatory phase. We're working very closely with Kazakhstan as one of the chairs of the preparatory meetings. And I think the recent meeting in July in Geneva was quite successful, largely thanks to the first deputy foreign minister in the chair, who was able to really bring those different states to agree to adopt the sixth report.
Can we say that we got closer?
Yes, but we need to keep the momentum, and then we need to make sure that there will be a consensus document to be adopted in 2026. Now it's difficult because there are so many challenges, and, we need to make sure that no one will give up on the NPT. Quite the contrary, I think all parties actually understand and share the perspective that we need to make sure that we need to protect NPT together. But there are other platforms. Nuclear disarmament in a way is a very complex jigsaw puzzle. We need to make sure that all pieces are there. We look at the broader picture. Sometimes we need to invest in NPT. That's very important.
TPNW is another very important instrument that is under the development. It's a new treaty. But efforts that are taking place in the UN General Assemblies is another very important work. We will have summit of the future in September. And there are important disarmament discussionss that are being negotiated as we speak now in New York. So, we need to utilize all these different processes and opportunities. And again, I am increasingly working very closely with the middle powers, including Kazakhstan.
Now we have two documents that play a role in the disarmament of international security. Experts say that there is a need for modernization of the nuclear control system. But none of them have particular ideas in terms of that. What's the vision of the UN office that you are responsible for in terms of that?
It's a very important point that you raise. We're now living in the age of a rapid advancement of science and technology. We need to look at all these new and emerging technologies and really understand the impact of those technologies on disarmament and international security. So, again, the process of many of those discussions have started. I spend so much time looking at AI issues and member states are very interested. And that also links with nuclear disarmament as well. It's a scary prospect, but if artificial intelligence were to be fully integrated into nuclear command and control systems, that's a very scary thought. So we need to make sure that we start establishing guardrails and norms of how to and how not to use technologies for military purposes.
Perhaps they can even help instead?
Yes. At the same time, as you say, those technologies can be also useful on how to verify disarmament obligations. If we can utilize artificial intelligence, I'm sure we will be able to make some advances. So we need to look at both positive side and potential negative side.
New technologies are quite unpredictable. But, coming back to the topic of Central Asia region. Kazakhstan doesn't have a nuclear weapon as well as the other five Central Asian states. But we have neighbors like Russia, India, Pakistan, and Iran who have it. So what security measures do you think are the most important that can be taken by these countries? Is there any prospect of creating an office here? Any prospects for that?
It's really laudable and it’s just absolutely fantastic that Kazakhstan chose a nuclear-weapon-free country and the zone for the whole region. That is a real demonstration that your country will be more secure without nuclear weapons. It's the whole concept of nuclear-weapon-free zones. How to make sure that that will actually be the case? There are many dimensions. And I think a very important dimension is the security guarantees from other nuclear weapon states that they would not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states. It is one of the subjects that at this workshop at the foreign ministry today are being discussed. For me, it's also quite an important issue, as for the broader UN membership, it's increasingly a key subject matter. How to realize it is the diplomacy, a multifaceted, multi-vector diplomacy that Kazakhstan is really investing in to make sure that your security will be guaranteed and assured through the power of very sophisticated diplomacy and negotiations. That's why, the UN and many other international platforms like the UN exist. It is another reason why we really respect the path that Kazakhstan has chosen and in many senses leading in the whole region.
