KAZAKHSTAN CONTINUES TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT THE WORK OF 1540 COMMITTEE

New York, April 12, 2018, - At a meeting of the UN Security Council, Kazakhstan noted the importance of strengthening the work of the Council in the fight against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by increasing the effectiveness of the Council's subsidiary body, the Committee established in accordance with Resolution 1540 (2004).

Ambassador Kairat Umarov, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan, expressed his country's commitment to achieving this goal at the meeting devoted to assessment of the current activities of the 1540 Committee. In particular, he confirmed that Kazakhstan, proceeding from its principled position on disarmament and non-proliferation, continues to actively support the mandate of the Committee. “We are concerned about the growing threat of WMD falling into the hands of terrorists and other non-state actors, and we stress, in this regard, the importance of timely and adequate evaluation of the changing nature of the risks of proliferation in the conditions of rapid advances of science and technology", said Ambassador Umarov.

In this regard, a number of important initiatives of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev aimed at strengthening global nuclear security architecture were noted, including the ban on the creation of new types of weapons of mass destruction through new scientific discoveries, and resumption of the Nuclear Security Summit processes.

In the context of measures to counteract nuclear terrorism, the Code of Conduct Towards Achieving a World Free of Terrorism developed by Kazakhstan and presented during the country's Presidency of the Security Council in January 2018, was also highlighted. Kazakh Ambassador assured that the implementation of the Code will contribute not only to the goals and tasks of the UN Counter-terrorism Committee, but also to the activities of the 1540 Committee. This becomes of a particular significance at the time of urgent need to protect critical infrastructure from the threat of terrorism.

Having heard the report of the 1540 Committee by its Chair, Ambassador Sacha Llorenti, Permanent Representative of Bolivia, the Council Members unanimously observed that notwithstanding the serious efforts of Member States, the risk of WMD falling into the hands of non-state actors, including terrorist groups, still remains. They, therefore, called on the 1540 Committee to intensify its efforts to further strengthen the non-proliferation regime.