ASTANA – Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Akan Rakhmetullin chaired the second session of the Preparatory Committee for the Eleventh Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which took place on July 22 – Aug. 2 in Geneva.
Photo credit: Foreign Ministry’s press service
The main outcomes of the session comprised the chairman’s working paper, which reflected the status of the review of the implementation of the NPT by its states parties and the most acute topics in the fields of nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
“The conference was held over two weeks in extremely difficult geopolitical circumstances, which were reflected in confrontational statements and diametrically opposed positions of both nuclear-armed States and non-nuclear-weapon States,” the Foreign Ministry’s press service reported on Aug. 5.
The outcomes of Kazakhstan’s chairmanship marked a return to positive negotiating dynamics in the key negotiating venue in the field of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. They laid a constructive foundation for the third and final Preparatory Committee, which will be held in New York from April to May 2025 under Ghana’s chairmanship.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons entered into force in 1970 and is a fundamental international document aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, promoting nuclear disarmament and advancing the peaceful uses of atomic energy. Kazakhstan has been a full-fledged non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the NPT since 1994.
For the first time in 2024, Kazakhstan chaired one of the key events within the NPT review cycle. NPT Review Conferences are held every five years to assess the treaty’s implementation and identify areas for further work to achieve its goals. The Eleventh NPT Review Conference will be held in New York in 2026.
