02 December 2010
Clinton: Kazakhstan Assuming an Emerging Regional Role
Washington — Serving as host of the first summit in 11 years of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is a testament to Kazakhstan’s valued role in international affairs and its emerging role as a regional force in Central Asia, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says.
The OSCE summit December 1–2 is the first to be held in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, and the first held by a former Soviet republic. Kazakhstan, which took OSCE leadership January 1, is also the first former Soviet republic to chair the trans-Atlantic security organization.
“As the first former Soviet republic to lead the OSCE as an independent nation, Kazakhstan has helped to focus attention on Central Asia’s challenges, as well as its many opportunities,” Clinton said December 1 at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev, OSCE chairman and Kazakhstan state secretary, at the Palace of Independence.
Clinton also met with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, which underscores the evolving strategic partnership between the United States and Kazakhstan, Saudabayev said at the press conference.
Speaking of his meeting with Clinton, Saudabayev said they agreed that “development is only achieved through the rule of law with strong democratic institutions.”
Saudabayev added that the OSCE summit delegates said that achieving regional stability and sustainable development will require a commitment to the rule of law and human rights.
“It was also stressed how important it was to normalize relations of the Islamic world with the West, and to achieve an effective dialogue between civilizations and to increase tolerance,” Saudabayev said.
Kazakhstan has been working closely with the United States and the United Nations on global food security, he said. The United States is also working in partnership with Kazakhstan to implement major agricultural projects. The partnership includes introducing U.S. farm technologies to Kazakh farmers.
Clinton told reporters that she and Saudabayev discussed security, the economy, the environment, democracy, human rights and tolerance.
“The United States is committed to the OSCE, and we and our partners are working to empower it to take an even more effective role, including the encouragement of more transparency and cooperation between and among militaries, helping resolve long-standing conflicts, and standing up against attacks on civil society and journalists,” Clinton said.
“Our discussions here in Astana have been constructive and substantive,” she added.
Clinton said Kazakhstan has been a leader in curbing nuclear proliferation and in safeguarding vulnerable nuclear materials, in partnership with the United States and Britain. Those two nations recently secured more than 10 metric tons of highly enriched uranium and three metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium in Kazakhstan.
“This is a milestone of our cooperation, and a major step forward in meeting the goals set at this year’s Nuclear Security Summit of securing all nuclear material within four years,” Clinton told reporters.
The last OSCE Summit was held in Istanbul in 1999. It concluded with the adoption of a common declaration and charter for European security that has served as a guiding force for the nations of Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the aftermath of the Cold War. The OSCE is the world’s largest regional security organization, whose 56 participating nations span the globe from Central Asia to Europe to North America.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
