Reps of all existing nuclear-weapon-free zones to gather in Nur Sultan

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM - Kazakhstan and the entire world will mark this week the 10th Anniversary of declaring August 29 the International Day Against Nuclear Tests. In view of this, the city of Nur-Sultan will host a seminar on consolidating the efforts of nuclear-weapon-free zones, Kazinform correspondent reports.

«In the furtherance of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s antinuclear initiative to convene a meeting of nuclear-weapon-free zones, the Foreign Ministry, jointly with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, will organize 28-29 August a seminar on ‘Developing and enhancing consultation mechanisms among the existing nuclear-weapon-free zones.’ The event will bring together representatives of all the existing zones (the Latin America, African, South Pacific, Central Asian, Southeast Asian ones), as well as Mongolia as a country of a unique nuclear-free status, and the interested international organizations, including the IAEA and the CTBTO,» Aibek Smadiyarov, Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, told a briefing.

He informed reporters that the event attendees will discuss the main problems, prospects, and ways to strengthen cooperation, will consider proposals for the institutionalization of inter-zonal cooperation.

According to the Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, the UN Secretariat in New York will host August 29 the ceremony of presenting Kazakhstan with the instruments of ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

It is to be recalled that on 29 August 1991, the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Elbasy, Nursultan Nazarbayev, decreed to close the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site. By the resolution of the UN General Assembly in 2009, the historic day was officially declared the International Day Against Nuclear Tests.