Kazakhstan

First of all, I would like to congratulate the President on his election to his high office, which convincingly proves that the international prestige of Ukraine, one of the founders of the United Nations, is widely recognized. For the current session, which is being held in the spirit of renewal of this world forum, it is very symbolic. I also with to express our appreciation to the previous President, Mr. Razali Ismail, for his considerable contribution to the successful work of the fifty-first session of the General Assembly. Kazakhstan believes that in the twenty-first century the United Nations should become a highly effective instrument that will help to make a smooth transition to real multipolarity, establish global economic partnership and democratize international relations. For our part, we stand ready to contribute to the adoption within the United Nations of important decisions on the urgent issues of today. The Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, has undertaken to carry out a daunting mission of reforming the Organization. Nothing could be harder than to live in times of change; it is all the harder to be the maker of the changes. This is why we are fully on the side of the man at the head of the United Nations, and we welcome his initiatives and his course of action. Kazakhstan supports the Secretary-General’s proposals regarding a more efficient leadership and management structure, a new management culture and structural transformations within the Organization. We support measures taken by the United Nations to ensure sustainable development. In our view, the proposed United Nations Development Group deserves endorsement. At the same time, it is important to preserve the independence and the distinctiveness of the funds and programmes that are being consolidated, especially the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a reputable organization that is doing so much for the sake of children, including its work in Kazakhstan. The financial crisis of the United Nations is an urgent issue demanding a solution. The programme of reforms proposed by the Secretary-General provides for measures to redress the situation in which the Organization has found itself. There is no doubt that the improvement of the financial situation of the United Nations depends on the fulfilment by Member States of their obligations to the Organization. Despite the economic difficulties of the transition period, Kazakhstan is trying to honour its financial obligations. At the same time, we consider it imperative to further improve the scale of assessment on the basis of real ability to pay. Kazakhstan, as one of the States that have joined the system of stand-by arrangements, supports the strengthening of the Organization’s capacity to carry out preventive and peacekeeping activities. We welcome the Secretary-General’s proposals on the issues of disarmament and regulation of armaments, and we support his measures regarding human rights, organized crime, drugs and terrorism. Kazakhstan is ready to join in efforts to strengthen the role of the General Assembly in dealing with burning international issues. Our country is in favour of convening a special “Millennium Assembly” in the year 2000. This idea is in consonance with President Nursultan 17 Nazarbaev’s initiative to convene on the eve of the twenty- first century a special session of the General Assembly devoted to reform. In our opinion, United Nations reforms should be carried out in an integrated manner, at different levels and in different directions. At the same time, it is impossible to ignore that the key element of these reforms is the reform of the Security Council itself. Kazakhstan has repeatedly declared its support for Germany and Japan as candidates for permanent membership of the Council. Supporting the enlargement of the Council in both categories of its members, we believe it is possible to include as its permanent members representatives of the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America in order to ensure a balance of interests and an adequate reflection of existing geopolitical realities. It is important to keep in mind, however, that to preserve the Security Council’s efficiency, the number of its members should be limited. At the same time, we think it is necessary to show proper respect and to pay attention to other proposals coming from other States. Kazakhstan has on several occasions used this high rostrum to stress the need to strengthen the United Nations activities in the area of the environment. For our country these activities have special importance. For this reason, addressing the nineteenth special session of the United Nations General Assembly last June, the President of Kazakhstan once again drew the attention of the international community to the acute environmental problems inherited by our country. I refer to ecological disaster areas of the Aral Sea and the former Semipalatinsk nuclear testing ground. The problem of the Aral Sea has a global dimension. Particles of salt sediments from this region have been found in Europe, as well as in the Arctic Ocean. The Aral Sea region is witnessing a disastrous shortage of fresh water, a worsening of the population’s health and the degradation of the natural environment. Some 470 nuclear explosions have been conducted at the Semipalatinsk testing ground, which used to be the largest in the world. Enormous damage has been caused to the health of the population and the natural environment. We believe that nuclear weapons represent a tragedy that affects all the peoples of the world. With that in mind, our Head of State has spoken about the responsibility of the nuclear Powers for the damage caused to the population and the natural environment of the States where nuclear tests were conducted. Such responsibility could be shouldered by setting up an international fund for the rehabilitation of the health of the population and the environment of the regions affected by nuclear-weapon tests. Our President’s decision to close the Semipalatinsk testing ground should be considered as a major contribution to nuclear disarmament of historic significance. This month Kazakhstan hosted an international conference on nuclear non-proliferation, initiated by President Nazarbaev. Participants visited the former testing ground and became further convinced of the need to assist Kazakhstan, which is overcoming the consequences of nuclear tests conducted for more than half a century. In this respect, the strengthening of environmental security has the highest priority for the region of Central Asia. Accordingly, at a meeting held in Almaty last February, the Heads of the Central Asian States adopted a Declaration proclaiming 1998 a Year of Environmental Protection in our region and highlighting the need to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia. We are grateful to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his support for the idea of establishing such a zone, in his message addressed to the participants in the Semipalatinsk conference. As a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Kazakhstan is firmly committed to the non-proliferation regime, and considers it important to actively contribute to its further strengthening. Our State vigorously supports the objectives of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. We believe that the signing of this document was one of the most important and historic events of this century, which is nearing its end. We call on all States to adhere to this Treaty. Recognizing the importance of a deep reduction in the number of conventional weapons having indiscriminate effects, Kazakhstan took a decision to declare a moratorium, effective 6 August 1997, on the export of anti-personnel mines, including the re-export and transit thereof. Kazakhstan has taken consistent steps to strengthen security and stability at the regional level. Nursultan Nazarbaev’s initiative to convene a Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, first put forward at the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly, is shaping up on the practical plane. We are planning to convene, in 1998, a meeting of 18 Foreign Ministers of interested States to discuss security issues in Asia. The formation of a Central Asian battalion under the auspices of the United Nations has become a factor of stability in the Central Asian region and provides clear evidence of the implementation of the proposal made by our Head of State. Recently, its first exercises were successfully conducted in Kazakhstan. The signing of unique agreements between Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and the People’s Republic of China on confidence-building measures and the reduction of armed forces in the border region should be considered as a major achievement in the area of international security. We note with satisfaction the signing in June of the General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord in Tajikistan, which represents a significant breakthrough in the settlement, under the auspices of the United Nations, of the longest-running conflict among the post-Soviet countries. Kazakhstan is one of the guarantors of the peace process in Tajikistan. We believe that all those concerned should ensure the adoption of practical measures to facilitate the implementation of the agreements concluded, the delivery of international humanitarian assistance and the reconstruction of the national economy. We are seriously concerned by the continued armed confrontation in Afghanistan. We in Kazakhstan are convinced that peace in that country can be achieved through political negotiations, under the auspices of the United Nations, between all the parties involved in this conflict in order to establish peace and form a Government of national unity in that country, which has suffered so much. Kazakhstan, which is committed to the ideas of renewal, has firmly embarked on a course of economic reform and the democratization of social life. Reforms in our country have become irreversible. The privatization of the economy is being completed, the level of inflation has been steadily low, the national currency is stable and liquid, and for the first time in a little more than five years of independence we have registered economic growth. Kazakhstan is open to the outside world and offers considerable investment opportunities. Our State is leading the Commonwealth of Independent States in per capita foreign investments. We strongly believe that very soon Kazakhstan will firmly take its place in global integration processes and become a fully fledged member of major economic associations and organizations. We should like to express our appreciation to the United Nations for its support for President Nazarbaev’s proposal to create a joint body for Central Asia under two regional Commissions, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). In a few days’ time, the heads of these Commissions will come to our country. A special ECE- ESCAP programme for Central Asian States is under way. A joint office of the two organizations is to be opened in Almaty. I would like to make special mention of the activities of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). Seven new States, including Kazakhstan, joined ECO not very long ago. Nevertheless, the ECO member States have managed to reach promising levels of cooperation and interaction. The declaration adopted at the ECO summit last May provides an opportunity to create new transportation corridors and routes to transport hydrocarbons, and the ECO member States, as well as many other countries in Asia and Europe, are equally interested in their development. How the Organization will look when it enters the twenty-first century will depend on the decisions we take in the follow-up to our discussions of United Nations reform. Years ago, an enormous internal capacity was built into the United Nations Charter. The United Nations was designed for a world based on the principles of partnership and cooperation, not on all-out confrontation. Also important is the fact that the United Nations Charter, which might be called an institutional pillar of the Organization, is a highly balanced document, free of any visible bias in one direction or another, and this has allowed it to become, one might say, a code of modern international relations that no civilized State has any right to ignore. The decisions that are being taken should be as balanced as possible and should not amount to stop-gap and ad hoc measures. That is one of the main demands with regard to United Nations reform. The United Nations should come out of the reform process renewed, more effective and more efficient.