Meeting with the Newly Appointed Head of UNHCR Representation for Central Asia Held at the Kazakh Foreign Ministry

 Astana, January 21, 2026 – First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerzhan Ashikbayev held a meeting with Mahir Safarli, newly appointed Representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for Central Asia.

During the meeting, current issues on the international agenda were discussed in the context of implementation of the initiative of the head of state to open the UN Regional Center of Sustainable development goals for Central Asia and Afghanistan in Almaty. Particular attention was paid to the issues of the Almaty process, chairmanship of which has been assumed by Kazakhstan since April 2025.

The UNHCR representative thanked Kazakhstan for the constructive partnership and open dialogue. Participants emphasized the importance of strengthening multilateral cooperation and coordinating efforts to promote sustainable development and ensure comprehensive approach to addressing humanitarian and migration issues in the region and the world.

The Almaty process, founded in 2013 in Almaty, is a regional consultative platform on refugee protection and international migration, covering Central Asia, for the exchange of the best practices and the harmonization of migration policies, as well as for facilitating the development of mechanisms for monitoring migration trends. The chairmanship for 2025-2027 has been transferred from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan. The participating states are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Türkiye. IOM and UNHCR serve as the secretariat of the Almaty Process.