KAZAKHSTAN CALLS FOR SUPPORTING NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT INTIATIVES

NUR-SULTAN

09/06/2020

 

H.E. Mr. Mukhtar Tleuberdi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, on 9 June 2020 attended a ministerial videoconference of the Stockholm Initiative on Nuclear Disarmament and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This initiative brings together 16 like-minded non-nuclear-weapon states at a high political level, united within the ‘Stockholm Group’.

 

H.E. Minister Tleuberdi, while reaffirming once again Kazakhstan’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, highlighted that the world’s second largest Semipalatinsk test site was closed in 1991 by the decision of H.E. Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, First President of Kazakhstan – the Leader of the Nation (Elbasy).

 

REFERENCE 1: The Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS or Semipalatinsk-21), also known as "The Polygon", was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. It is located on the steppe in northeast Kazakhstan (then the Kazakh SSR), south of the valley of the Irtysh River. The scientific buildings for the test site were located around 150 km (93 mi) west of the town of Semipalatinsk (later renamed Semey), near the border of East Kazakhstan Region and Pavlodar Region with most of the nuclear tests taking place at various sites further to the west and south, some as far as into Qaragandy Region. The Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk from 1949 until 1989 with little regard for their effect on the local people or environment. The full impact of radiation exposure was hidden for many years by Soviet authorities and has only come to light since the test site closed in 1991. From 1996 to 2012, a secret joint operation of Kazakh, Russian, and U.S. nuclear scientists and engineers secured the waste plutonium in the tunnels of the mountains. Since its closure, the STS has become the best-researched atomic testing site in the world, and the only one in the world open to the public.

 

In this vein, Kazakh Foreign Minister called for supporting initiatives to rehabilitate the environment and the population of the Semipalatinsk (Semey) area of the East Kazakhstan Region.

 

His Excellency also urged to implement the provisions of the Universal Declaration on the Achievement of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 7 December 2015 within its Resolution A/RES/70/57.

 

During the videoconference, several specific steps and measures to ensure further nuclear disarmament, as well as to strengthen the NPT and reaffirm ongoing support for the Treaty, were discussed. It was emphasized that these steps and measures should include, inter alia, close work with the nuclear-weapon states.

It was also underscored that the strong commitment to the goals of the NPT will be essential to ensure the success of the landmark 10th NPT Review Conference.

 

REFERENCE 2:

Members of the ‘Stockholm Group’ (Stockholm Initiative) are urging the international community, especially nuclear-weapon states, to utilize all the opportunities to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in their security doctrines and security policies, as well as to ensure complete nuclear disarmament. The first meeting of the ‘Stockholm Group’ (Stockholm Initiative) took place in Stockholm in 2019 by the initiative of the Kingdom of Sweden. Along with Kazakhstan, the ‘Stockholm Group’ (Stockholm Initiative) includes Argentina, Canada, Finland, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.