Kazakhstan participated in the Ministerial Meeting of the Stockholm Initiative

Madrid, July 5, 2021 – The Kazakh delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tileuberdi took part in the regular Ministerial Meeting of the countries participating in the Stockholm Initiative on Nuclear Disarmament and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which was held in Madrid in both online and offline formats.

In his statement, Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi stressed that many measures of the Stockholm Initiative coincide with what Kazakhstan is promoting in the field of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Noting that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site and the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, he called for support for the initiatives of Kazakhstan to create a Global Alliance of Leaders for Nuclear Security and a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World and the adoption of another Universal Declaration of the UN General Assembly for the Achievement of a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World.

On the sidelines of the Ministerial Meeting, Mukhtar Tileuberdi held bilateral talks with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Christin Linde. They discussed issues of cooperation between Kazakhstan and the OSCE in the context of the upcoming Ministerial Meeting of the Organization in Stockholm and ways to strengthen cooperation between Kazakhstan and Sweden. In particular, the issues of political dialogue at the highest level, trade, economic and investment cooperation, the “green economy” and the fight against the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic were discussed.

Separate meetings were also held with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate Affairs Ayman Al-Safadi. The parties discussed issues of further development of bilateral cooperation and interaction in a multilateral format.

The Stockholm Initiative calls on the international community, especially the Nuclear-Weapon States, to utilize all available opportunities to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in security doctrines and policies, as well as to complete nuclear disarmament. The first meeting of the group was held in Stockholm in 2019.

Along with Kazakhstan, this group includes 16 countries: Argentina, Canada, Finland, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.