Kazakhstan, UN strengthen partnership in fight with international terrorism

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM Ambassador-at-Large of the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs Stanislav Vassilenko had a meeting with a joint delegation of the UN Agencies including the representatives of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, UNDP and UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Kazinform reports.

The sides discussed the opportunity of implementation of the project Strengthening Resilience to Violence and Extremism in Asia (STRIVE Asia): A Joint EU-UN Partnership in Kazakhstan, according to the MFA's press service.

The goal of the STRIVE Asia project is to contribute to the prevention and countering the violent extremism in Central, Southern and Southeastern Asia through a multilateral approach with the help of governments, security structures, civil society, research communities and mass media in the nearest four years.

According to the project developers, the spread of violent extremism poses a serious threat to the efforts of the international community in relation to peace and security. The majority of the Central Asian countries observe growth in radicalization and religious extremism caused by foreign terrorist fighters moving across the region or returning to their home countries.

The total budget of the EU-donated project is $10mn.

Taking into consideration the importance of rehabilitation and reintegration of foreign terrorist fighters (in custody) as well as the citizens of Kazakhstan evacuated from the combat areas of Syria during JUSAN humanitarian operation, the STRIVE Asia project may contribute to the strengthening of Kazakhstan’s potential in countering terrorism and extremism.