RAISING THE OSCE’S PROFILE
20-06-2010
Interview of Ambassador Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the OSCE for “Cercle Diplomatique” Magazine (May, 2010)
On 1 January 2010 Kazakhstan became the first Central Asian country to take over the Chairmanship of the OSCE. How would you like to develop the OSCE and what are your targets for this year?
Four months of Kazakhstan’s Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) are already over. As the first post-Soviet country to head this pan-European organization, Kazakhstan has endeavored to ensure successful start of its extremely responsible mission.
Since the very outset our Chairmanship has been trying to follow the motto of the four Ts – Trust, Tradition, Transparency and Tolerance.
Our Chairmanship’s programme includes activity to counter new threats and challenges, search for solutions to protracted conflicts, rehabilitation of Afghanistan, co-operation in the transport sector, promotion of tolerance and other important areas.
On the eve of our Chairmanship we initiated the idea of an OSCE summit. Meeting at the highest level would impart a powerful impulse to the efforts to adapt the OSCE to threats and challenges of the modern age and would increase confidence in and respect for the Organization.
We firmly believe that the OSCE, which brings together 56 countries in the area from Vancouver to Vladivostok, must address the most pressing problems in today’s world. The task of the international community is not only to revive the spirit of the Helsinki Process, but also to impart fresh vigour to it.
Alongside the Chairmanship’s day-to-day work, we have begun to take measures to promote the European security dialogue, which is known as the Corfu Process.
Can you outline the Corfu Process and where it will lead to under the Chairmanship of Kazakhstan?
Active discussions on the future of European security began at the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Helsinki in November 2008. In June 2009 these discussions took the form of an informal process that became known as the “Corfu Process” after the name of the island where an unofficial meeting of foreign ministers, convened at Greece’s initiative, was held.
This is actually a logical reaction by the OSCE community to the extremely complex and at times dramatic events that have been occurring in the Organization’s area of responsibility in recent years. The first year of discussions culminated in the adoption of two documents at the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Athens ¬– a Ministerial Declaration and a Decision on the Corfu Process – attesting to the readiness of the participating States to continue their informal dialogue. As you will recall, the Declaration contains a reference to Kazakhstan’s proposal to hold an OSCE summit in 2010.
Kazakhstan assuming the Chairmanship launched a new stage of the Corfu Process. We plan to hold around eight multilateral meetings between January and June 2010 with a view to ensuring a comprehensive dialogue on all the aspects of pan European security covering all three dimensions. All the OSCE institutions, the Organization’s partner countries, academic circles, NGOs and representatives of regional security organizations are involved in this informal dialogue.
By way of continuing the Corfu Process, Kazakhstan intends to invite the OSCE foreign ministers to an informal meeting in Almaty this summer. The results of the current round of the process should make a contribution to the agenda for the OSCE summit in 2010.
The Chairmanship of Kazakhstan is attracting attention because of the Central Asian connection. Do you see your role as that of a spokesperson for this entire region?
Naturally, our Chairmanship is under a close attention on the part of the OSCE community towards Central Asia. Situated as it is at the very heart of the Eurasian continent, the region has long since ceased to be on the periphery of the world politics. Any developments in the region have a direct effect on the situation in the entire Eurasian area.
Central Asia is united not only by common geography, culture and history, but also by a number of problems that need to be solved through joint efforts. The security and sustainable development of Central Asia is a major priority for Kazakhstan. We share common positions in seeking solutions to many regional problems.
At the same time, crisis in Kyrgyzstan has proved that OSCE and other international organizations play a significant role in promoting stability.
Therefore, I believe that continuous raising the OSCE’s profile in Central Asia must be an important objective not only for the current Kazakh Chairmanship but also for all subsequent chairmanships.
What are the main security issues in Central Asia that you would like to draw attention to through your work?
Today the concept of European security includes not only traditional European and Euro Atlantic connections but also vast area of Eurasia. This being the case, Kazakhstan intends to take the Central Asian perspective into account when discussing the most important issues of European security and to pay greater attention to the needs of that part of the OSCE area.
To a considerable degree this applies to the problem of Afghanistan. Kazakhstan views development of the situation in that country through the prism of global security and the need to combat religious extremism, terrorism and drug trafficking. At the same time, there is a need to change methods of combating these modern challenges by shifting the emphasis from military and police methods to efforts to eliminate the sources of these challenges. Helping the Afghan people move their society from armed confrontation to constructive development is one of the principal goals of the work of the OSCE and the international coalition.
In addition to Kazakhstan’s educational programme, which is allocating 50 million US dollars for the civilian vocational training of a thousand Afghan nationals at Kazakh universities, the Chairmanship will continue to focus on the implementation of, and support through co sponsorship for, projects that are part of what is known as the “Afghan package” for strengthening Afghanistan’s borders with Central Asian countries, developing border co operation and improving law enforcement operations.
In addition to Afghanistan, countries of the region are increasingly concerned with the problems of economic and environmental security. We think it important to draw attention to the problem of the Aral Sea – an environmental disaster for Central Asia that is having a proven negative effect on Europe as well.
For many years the OSCE has been doing all it can to strengthen democratic institutions and civil society in Central Asia. The Organization is carrying out important projects in the areas of judicial and legal reform, promotion of freedom of the media, improvements to electoral systems, better policing, measures to combat trafficking in human beings, etc.
What will be the future role of Kazakhstan in international relations?
In the early 1990s, at the dawn of our country’s independence, President Nursultan Nazarbayev declared that Kazakhstan’s future lay in both the East and the West. This is largely determined by the country’s geographic location, its proximity to major powers and the fact that it lies at the crossroads of many different civilizations.
For these reasons Kazakhstan is pursuing an active, pragmatic and balanced foreign policy. We have renounced our nuclear legacy, closed down the world’s second-largest nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk and acceded to the non proliferation regime as a nuclear free State. Kazakhstan was the driving force behind such important international fora as the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia and the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
In the future, Kazakhstan intends to participate in the adoption of comprehensive decisions on the formation of a new architecture for international relations and on defining the outlines of a system for the world trade and finance. Kazakhstan will actively support strategic dialogue among all the existing collective security arrangements.
Kazakhstan enjoys important trade partnerships with China, Europe and the Russian Federation. How do you think these relations will develop over the next ten years?
Russia, the European Union and China are Kazakhstan’s three main trading partners, and together with the United States are the major investors in the Kazakh economy. Active commercial and economic policy is rightly seen as the key to international stability. Where there is active trade and mutual investment, there is also trust.
For Kazakhstan an active foreign policy is very important for the access to global markets, especially given that Kazakhstan is a landlocked country.
Among major international projects concerned with the economy, I would single out activation of the Central Asia-China gas pipeline, building up transport capabilities for supply of hydrocarbons to Europe and the construction of Western China-Europe international highway in the territory of Kazakhstan.
