Kazakhstan announces support for inter-Korean summit
ASTANA – Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kairat Abdrakhmanov expressed support for the upcoming summit between the Republic of Korea and North Korea at an April 17 joint press briefing here with his Korean colleague Kang Kyung-wha. Abdrakhmanov said he hopes the April 27 summit provides a breakthrough for the de-nuclearisation of the…
Kazakh officials briefed on Estonia’s IT success
ASTANA – Kazakh officials were briefed during a meeting in Tallinn at the end of March on Estonia’s digitisation successes. Estonia is considered a leader in IT-based logistics and business services and the meeting came as Kazakhstan embarks on its national digitisation programme. Estonia is ranked first in Europe in the Global Index on cyber…
Kazakh FM briefs CIS foreign ministers on Kazakh initiatives, signs security and education agreements
ASTANA – Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov briefed the Commonwealth of Independent States Council of Foreign Ministers April 6 in Minsk, Belarus on Kazakhstan’s initiatives on regional security and development, denuclearisation and confidence building. Abdrakhmanov also thanked his colleagues for supporting Kazakhstan’s presidency of the United Nations Security Council and efforts on Afghan security and…
Kazakh President, UAE Crown Prince discuss bilateral ties, oversee multiple agreements
ASTANA – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev paid an official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) March 24, meeting with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and UAE Armed Forces Deputy Supreme Commander Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. According to the Akorda press service, the expanded meeting explored cooperation in investment protection, space technology, hydraulic power,…
Kazakh Senate Chairman, Indonesian President discuss Islamic finances and congress of world religions
A meeting with the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo was a central event of Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s official visit to Indonesia in mid-March. On behalf of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Tokayev invited Widodo to visit Kazakhstan in October 2018 and participate at the 6th Congress of Leaders…
Kazakhstan announces conference on Afghan gender equality
Ambassador-at-large of the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs Stanislav Vassilenko proposed during a March 8 United Nations Security Council meeting on Afghanistan a three-pronged approach to bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan and announced plans to hold a conference devoted to women empowerment. The approach includes a) a security-development nexus, meaning that programmes for sustainable…
Central European, Central Asian foreign ministers launch new dialogue platform in Budapest
ASTANA – Seizing the occasion of its presidency at the Visegrad Group and standing by its “V4 Connects” motto, Hungary convened the first meeting of foreign ministers of the Visegrad Group and Central Asia in Budapest on Feb. 27. The formal meeting, with a symbolic representation of central nations from Europe and Asia, is part…
Kazakh FM, officials brief foreign diplomats on national tourism effort
ASTANA – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is joining efforts with other government agencies to promote inbound and domestic tourism in Kazakhstan, Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov announced during a March 2 briefing for the foreign diplomatic corps. The Ministry of Culture and Sport, Kazakh Tourism, regional authorities and investment policy agencies will implement national initiatives…
Kazakhstan adopts new version of Latin-based Kazakh alphabet
ASTANA – President Nursultan Nazarbayev amended his Oct. 26, 2017 decree concerning the transition of the Kazakh alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin script, which if kept, would have put into effect a Latin-script alphabet with 32 letters including nine characters with apostrophes. The new amendment replaces the apostrophes with diacritic signs and digraphs. The deadline…
UN in Kazakhstan: 25 years of two-way street cooperation
ALMATY – Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Almaty Mayor Baurzhan Baibek, heads of the United Nations (UN) country offices in Kazakhstan, veterans of national diplomatic service and members of the expert community and academia participated Feb. 16 in an event in Almaty dedicated to the 25th anniversary of UN operations in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan joined the organisation…
Dialogue platform for Kazakh state and civil society sets agenda for 2018
ASTANA – This year’s first meeting of the Dialogue Platform on the Human Dimension, involving the Foreign Ministry, public authorities and civil society, was held in Astana Feb. 8 and chaired by Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov. This year, several members of the Mazhilis, Kazakhstan’s lower chamber of Parliament, participated, as did Kazakhstan’s secretary of the…
Kazakhstan leads discussion of Afghanistan and Central Asia at UNSC, secures statement
ASTANA – Working to fulfil the program of its presidency of the United Nations Security Council, Kazakhstan held Jan. 19 a ministerial debate on Central Asia and Afghanistan entitled “Building Regional Partnerships in Afghanistan and Central Asia as a Model for the Security-Development Nexus.” As has been reaffirmed by the Kazakh leadership on many occasions,…
Nazarbayev at UN Security Council: binding system to safeguard denuclearisation needed
ASTANA – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev chaired high-level briefing of the UN Security Council on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and related confidence-building measures on Jan. 18 in New York. He started his opening speech by thanking the international community for its confidence in Kazakhstan and in its peaceful policy. “As the first…
Top UN official outlines expectations for Kazakhstan’s UNSC Presidency
ASTANA – Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs of the United Nations Miroslav Jenca held a webinar with Kazakh journalists in Astana Jan. 11 to discuss the role of Kazakhstan as a non-permanent member and president of the UN Security Council. Jenca said the presidency has a prominent role for the functioning of the council, as…
Kazakhstan seeks ways to bolster tourism
ASTANA – Kazakhstan will enhance its tourism industry by developing a destination culture, mountain skiing and urban travel products, said managers of Kazakh Tourism, a new state-owned company tasked with developing tourism products in the country. By 2025, the country plans to increase the tourism share of the GDP by 8 percent, up from the…
