President Participates in Extraordinary Congress of Amanat Party, Urges Russia and Ukraine to Reach Agreement

Nur-Sultan, 1 March 2022 – The Extraordinary Congress of the ruling Amanat party (previously Nur Otan) was held in an online format on 1 March 2022 with the participation of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakhstan and Chairman of the party. During the meeting, Yerlan Koshanov, speaker of the lower chamber of Kazakhstan’s parliament, proposed to rename the Nur Otan party to “Amanat”, which was approved by the Chairman.

While the Congress focused primarily on the priorities of the party and the country, President Tokayev made a statement on the situation in Ukraine.

“Our position should proceed from the critical need to ensure the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state.

As the country that hosted the OSCE summit in 2010, we insist on the principle of the indivisibility of Eurasian security. I stated this during my visit to Moscow on February 10. The principle of indivisibility and common security stipulates mutual understanding based on mutual trust. Unfortunately, this has not happened. The Minsk agreements remained only on paper, which led to the military operations on the territory of Ukraine.

The geopolitical situation has escalated in an unprecedented way, and it is now time to talk about irreversibility of this trend. Therefore, we call on both states to find common ground at the negotiating table, to reach an agreement. There is no other way. A bad peace is better than a good war. Without peace, there will be no development.

Kazakhstan, for its part, is ready to provide all possible assistance, including intermediary services, if, of course, they are required”, President Tokayev said.

Commenting on the severe sanctions against Russia, and their potential impact on Kazakhstan, President Tokayev informed that he held a series of working meetings with the Security Council and set specific tasks for the Government to ensure sustainable socio-economic development of Kazakhstan. He said: “Our economy needs to be ready to repel the challenges posed by sanctions to ensure uninterrupted functioning in a crisis situation. I believe that we will overcome the difficulties and challenges together”. He emphasized that the challenges should not be underestimated, but there is no need to exaggerate them either.

Switching to the work of the Amanat party, the President outlined several tasks and priorities. They include launching a nation-wide initiative to gather ideas and proposals from citizens on the formation of the current national agenda, decentralising and increasing the efficiency of the party apparatus, reducing bureaucracy and paperwork, and enhancing the work of political factions in the Mazhilis and maslikhats. Tokayev also instructed to make use of parliamentary and public hearings. He also stressed that the evaluation of the work of the members of the party should be based on resolving the problems of citizens.

President Tokayev once again stated that the country has begun the huge task of creating a New Kazakhstan, and noted that the promotion of the interests of citizens and the openness of the party is an “extremely important priority”.

Factsheet on the Extraordinary Congress of the Amanat party:https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/article/details/77107?lang=en