The third Ministerial Meeting of the Istanbul Process on Regional Security and Cooperation for Secure and Stable Afghanistan will take place in Almaty on April 26. The process was launched on Nov. 2, 2011 at the foreign ministers meeting in Istanbul. Its first ministerial conference was held in Kabul on June 14, 2012. The third conference will take place in the InterContinental Almaty Hotel on April 26 and will be opened by President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov and Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul will address it and hold a joint press conference the same day.
On April 19, Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov chaired the Sixth Meeting of the Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction Non-Proliferation. Participants discussed implementing their agreed protocol and outlined new directions for the commission’s work. They reviewed implementation of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Low Enriched Uranium Bank, the creation of a Central Bio-Security Reference Laboratory, export control legislation improvement and international cooperation growth in the field of chemical security.
Kazakhstan plans to launch its first domestic remote sensing satellite in the fourth quarter of this year, the National Space Agency said. “The launch of the first Kazakh land remote sensing satellite of medium resolution is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2013 from the Yasny launch site in Russia,” it said. The second Kazakh land remote sensing satellite with high resolution is planned to be launched in 2014 from the French spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana.
The Russian Academy of Natural Sciences has awarded Professor Sagimbek Altayuli from the Gumilyov Eurasian National University’s Natural Sciences Department in Astana, the Alfred Nobel Medal for contributions to the development of inventions. Prof. Altayuli has worked in the area of food biotechnology for over 40 years and has a number of inventions and patents to his name.
Kazakhstan will participate for the first time in the Young Talents creative advertising competition in Cannes, France on June 16–22. The country will be represented in the cyber category by designer Tatyana Butskaya and copywriter Dauren Shubayev and by advertising designers Sergey Khussainov and Alexey Lubchikov in the film category.
Sitora Saparbayeva, an eighth grade student from Almaty took first place in the Man in Space competition organized by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Her work will be presented at the International Space Station and Man in Space symposium in Germany.
Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry has found no evidence that the suspects of Boston bombing Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnayevs lived in Kazakhstan. Brothers are originally from Chechnya, after the conflict in the 1990s they left the country and arrived to the United States as refugees. To recall, two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon near Copley Square, turning a celebration into a bloody scene of destruction. “We have not found any evidence to confirm these rumors [that Tsarnayevs lived in Kazakhstan]. We are ready to render any support to our American partners,” the Ministry wrote and added that Kazakhstan condemned terrorist attacks in any form and expressed sincere solidarity with the Boston citizens. According to another statement released April 22 by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, two foreign nationals arrested April 20 on immigration violations are from Kazakhstan and may have known the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.
On April 23, Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan Askhat Daulbayev met Secretary General of Austria’s Ministry for European and International Affairs Johannes Kirle in Vienna. Kirle suggested the possibility of deepening cooperation through the conclusion of agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.
