ALMATY. March 1. KAZINFORM. /Daniyar Sikhimbayev/ Kazakhstan confirms its commitment to the European arms control regime and confidence building measures. Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Kazakhstan Bulat Sultanov has said it at the VII scientific conference "Path to Europe Program: Cooperation Model of EU and Central Asia" in Almaty today.

According to him, Kazakhstan follows the principle that the security of the OSCE member states is inseparable from the security of their neighboring states, including those outside the organization. First of all, this is the case of Afghanistan. "We consider there is no military solution to the Afghan problem. Thus it is necessary to focus efforts on socio-economic rehabilitation of this country. In this context the Kazakh Government made a decision to allocate USD 50 million for education of Afghani students in Kazakh educational institutions. We hope that other states will follow this example", B. Sultanov emphasized.

"Sustainable development of Central Asia is an important direction of Kazakhstan's chairmanship in the OSCE. Astana intends to exploit the potential of the OSCE for the development of regional cooperation and collective struggle against new challenges", he stressed.