UNIPATH STAFF
Kazakhstan’s newly appointed President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in fields such as counterterrorism and economic development.
In a meeting with OSCE chief Miroslav Laichak, who also serves as Slovakia’s minister of foreign affairs, President Tokayev, also discussed mutual efforts to achieve stability in Afghanistan.
Tokayev, former chairman of Kazakhstan’s senate, assumed the presidency in March 2019 after the resignation of President Nursultan Nazarbayev after 30 years in office.
In his new role, Tokayev reassured the head of the OSCE that Kazakhstan remained committed to active cooperation with the organization. Kazakhstan joined the OSCE in 1992 soon after independence from the former Soviet Union.
As chairman of the organization in 2010, Kazakhstan hosted an OSCE summit attended by 30 heads of state and government and representatives of all 56 participating states. The summit resulted in the adoption of the Astana Declaration, which reaffirmed the values, norms, principles and obligations of the OSCE.
“Kazakhstan was very successful in chairing the OSCE in 2010, and the summit held at that time is still the only high-level OSCE meeting in the 21st century,” Laichak said. “And the documents that were then adopted have not lost their relevance and importance.”
At the meeting in the capital of Nur-Sultan (formerly known as Astana), Kazakh and OSCE officials also discussed the possibility of creating an OSCE Thematic Center on Sustainable Interconnectedness to address economic and environmental issues.
Sources: Zakon.kz, Inform.kz, Kazakh TV, OSCE