Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan held a telephone conversation with the UN Deputy Secretary-General

Nur-Sultan, January 20, 2021 - Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tileuberdi held a telephone conversation with the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, Fekitamoeloa Katoa Utoikamanu.

During the conversation, the parties discussed issues of further strengthening of cooperation between Kazakhstan and the United Nations in order to promote the development of vulnerable developing countries, including within the framework of the global chairmanship of our country in the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) for 2020-2021.

Ms. Utoikamanu highly appreciated the chairmanship of our country in the Group, noting that over the past year "Kazakhstan has managed to significantly raise the Group’s standing and awareness of the international community of vulnerability of such countries", and expressed the willingness to provide all necessary support to the chairmanship of Kazakhstan.

In return, Mr. Tileuberdi stressed that Kazakhstan will continue to defend and promote the interests of the Group's countries at all relevant platforms and shared the key priorities of the chairmanship for 2021.

Considering the fact that this group of vulnerable countries is the most affected by COVID-19, the parties noted the importance of attracting international partners and donors in order to fund specific development projects in LLDCs. In this regard, particular importance is attached to the implementation of the Road Map to boost the progress in solving the problems of LLDCs, particularly related to the remoteness from world markets and dependence on transit states. The document, adopted in September 2020 at the initiative of Kazakhstan’s chairmanship, aims to unite the efforts of all interested parties to increase the speed of implementation of projects to promote LLDCs for the period up to 2024.

For reference: Group of Landlocked Developing Countries includes 32 countries with a population of more than half a billion people. Kazakhstan is the largest country from a geographical standpoint and the most remote country in terms of distance to global oceans and access to the sea (more than 3000 km).