Ministers of Landlocked Developing Countries met on the margins of the UN General Assembly
New York, September 23, 2021 – The 20th Annual Ministerial Meeting of the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) was held online under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tileuberdi, within the framework of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly.
Chairman of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly Abdulla Shahid and UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries Courtenay Rattray also delivered welcoming addresses to the participants of the meeting.
Opening the meeting, the Minister noted that this group of less developed countries, as the most affected by the pandemic, requires adequate support from international partners and donors. Kazakhstan, as the global chairman of the LLDCs group for the period 2020-2021, has defended and promoted the interests of the countries of the Group on all relevant international platforms for almost two years.
The meeting resulted in the adoption of a Ministerial Declaration, which, at the initiative of Kazakhstan, calls, inter alia, for the creation of a new secretariat for the continuous coordination of the implementation of the Roadmap for accelerating progress on the issues of the Group's countries, including those related to remoteness from world markets and dependence on transit countries. This document, also initiated by the Kazakh chairmanship and adopted in September last year, facilitates the cooperation among all interested parties to accelerate the implementation of these tasks until 2024.
More than 85 delegates, including heads of foreign ministries of 32 LLDCs and partner countries, heads of international organizations and UN agencies such as UNIDO, FAO, UNCTAD, ESCAP, IOM, WTO, EEC and others attended this meeting.
The meeting also elected Botswana as the next Chair of the LLDCs Group for 2022-2023.
The Group of Landlocked Developing Countries includes 32 countries with a population of more than half a billion people. Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked state with the most remote location from the World Ocean (more than 3000 km).
On the same day, Mr. Tileuberdi participated in the Ministerial Conference on Facilitating Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Making a statement, he underscored the importance of the 30th anniversary of the historic decision of the First President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to close the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in 1991, which inspired other countries to follow the example of our country and stop nuclear tests. This laid the groundwork for the adoption of the CTBT in 1996.
The Minister called on the countries that have not ratified the CTBT to contribute to the entry into force of the Treaty.
The CTBT imposes a global ban on nuclear testing and stipulates supervision of its enforcement. Kazakhstan and Japan co-chaired the Conference on Facilitating Entry into Force of the CTBT in 2015.