ASTANA – Kazakhstan supports international efforts to strengthen regional security, stability, and conflict resolution, said Kazakh First Deputy Foreign Minister Akan Rakhmetullin during the 19th Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Ministerial Meeting, which took place on June 23-24 in Tehran.
Photo credit: Kazakh Foreign Ministry
According to the Foreign Ministry’s press service, Rakhmetullin emphasized the importance of taking collective measures amid growing geopolitical tensions, climate change, disruption of trade relations, and reduction of food and energy security in the Asian and Middle East regions in his address to the meeting participants.
During his speech, Rakhmetullin focused on Kazakhstan’s initiatives, including World Unity for Just Peace and Harmony and the establishment of the International Agency for Biological Safety and the UN Regional Centre for the Sustainable Development Goals for Central Asia and Afghanistan in Almaty.
Rakhmetullin invited experts and investors of the ADC countries to use the Astana Hub platform for practical interaction in the field of technology and innovation, underlining the importance of mitigating the negative consequences of the digital and technological gap in Asia.
The meeting attendees adopted the Tehran Declaration and approved the Guiding Principles for the Functioning of the ACD secretariat and the Rules of Procedures of the ACD.
On the sidelines of the event, Rakhmetullin held bilateral meetings with Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri and Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Reza Najafi to discuss international agenda, including cooperation within international organizations, as well as the prospects of bilateral cooperation to intensify the expanded good-neighborhood partnership.
The ACD is an inter-state platform established in 2002 for conversation, consultations, decision-making, and the implementation of consensus-based actions in different sectors of political and economic cooperation in Asia. Today, 35 states of Asia and the Middle East are members of the ACD. Kazakhstan joined it in 2003.
