Russian ambassador hails Kazakhstan's peacekeeping efforts

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan, has become a site where peace initiatives are generated owing to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Alexei Borodavkin said in an interview with TASS on Thursday.

"Russia pays close attention to all ideas and suggestions coming from Kazakhstan. Moscow highly values the experience and leadership of one of the most influential world politicians in the post-Soviet space, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev," the senior diplomat said, citing as an example Kazakhstan's presidency of the OSCE, successful non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council in 2017-2018.

"As for the peacekeeping efforts, Astana has indeed become a venue where peace initiatives are generated. The 11th by now round of negations on Syria in the Astana format took place here recently, in November, and major agreements were achieved," Borodavkin said.

"This activity yields real results," he went on to say. "Thus, information on a prisoner swap between the warrying parties in Syria was presented on the sidelines of a session of the working group on prisoner swap," the ambassador said. Work will be continued and a new session is scheduled for February, 2019, he stressed.