NTI honours Nazarbayev for contribution to reducing nuclear threats
"Ten years ago, we launched NTI with a commitment to strengthen global security by reducing the risk of use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and preventing their spread," one of the founders of the organisation, former U.S. Senator, Co-Chairman and CEO of the NTI Sam Nunn said at the event on October 4. "We envisioned an initiative that would take actions to lead the way, and not simply point the way. Working in partnership with governments around the world and other organisations, I am pleased to say that together, we have made a difference," Nunn added.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev was chosen among the ten major public figures from Australia, Britain, Germany, Norway, Russia, the USA and the countries of the Middle East, to be recognized with an award. According to Sam Nunn and Ted Turner, whose original contribution made NTI functioning possible, the decision has been made in recognition of the great contribution of President Nazarbayev to nuclear disarmament.
"For bold, pathbreaking leadership that set a global example in reducing nuclear threats," the Ted Turner Award to the President and the government of Kazakhstan said. Erlan Idrissov, Kazakhstan's ambassador to the United States, received the award on behalf of the President.
According to NTI, "Kazakhstan's leadership in nonproliferation and nuclear threat reduction is inspirational: a 1994 decision to relinquish its nuclear weapons; a project with the U.S. to secure 600 kilogrammes of weapons-grade uranium and an offer to serve as the host country for the IAEA international fuel bank." Ted Turner reinforced the message as he presented the award to Erlan Idrissov.
Senior U.S. administration officials and members of the U.S. Congress, representatives of international and non-governmental organisations, the diplomatic corps, and the media, participated in the event.
Ambassador Idrissov, in his acceptance remarks, congratulated the NTI and its founders on the anniversary and said Kazakhstan fully supports the noble goals that NTI has set a decade ago. The ambassador also emphasised that this year Kazakhstan is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of independence, and at the initiative of the President a major international Forum for a Nuclear Weapons Free World will take place in the cities of Astana and Semey on October 12 through 13.
When Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union, the country suffered nearly 500 nuclear tests, the equivalent of 2,500 bombs on Hiroshima, which affected around one and a half million Kazakh people and caused severe damage to vast territories of the country. As a result of that devastation, soon after its independence in 1991, Kazakhstan made a fateful decision to shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. By 1995, the country fully dismantled the world's fourth largest nuclear arsenal, which used to contain more warheads than those kept by France, Britain and China combined.
Having signed the Treaty on Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards Agreements and the Additional Protocol, Kazakhstan put an end to the long history of nuclear tests on its territory, declared itself a non-nuclear weapons state, and has since been an active campaigner for nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear safety.
Symbolically, at the initiative of President Nazarbayev, August 29, the day of the signing of a historic decree to close the Semipalatinsk site, was declared by the United Nations as the International Day against Nuclear Tests.
"Semipalatinsk has become a powerful symbol of hope, because it shows that a nuclear-free world is attainable," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in his speech at the site when visited Kazakhstan in April of 2010.
"The threat of nuclear terrorism puts us in a race between cooperation and catastrophe. The kind of cooperation we see again and again from Kazakhstan on a continuing basis can help us win that race," Co-chairman and CEO of NTI Sam Nunn has said before.
NTI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organisation working to reduce threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. NTI is governed by an international Board of Directors with members from nine countries and is co-chaired by founders Turner and Nunn. NTI's activities are directed by Senator Nunn and President Joan Rohlfing.