At United Nations Headquarters, on the sidelines of the Review Conference of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the delegation of the Republic of Kazakhstan continued its active work to strengthen the international non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament regime, El.kz cites Kazakh Foreign Ministry.
As Chairman of the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (Treaty of Semipalatinsk), the Head of the Kazakh delegation, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Yerzhan Ashikbayev, held consultations with the Secretary General of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL) Juan Carlos Ojeda Viglione. Following the consultations, the parties agreed on concrete measures and next steps to further strengthen the partnership between the two zones, building on the Memorandum of Understanding signed in December 2024.
In the margins of the Review Conference, Kazakhstan, in partnership with the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), and the non-governmental think tank Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), organized a special event on strengthening nuclear-weapon-free zones and the 20th anniversary of the Semipalatinsk Treaty. In his opening remarks First Deputy Minister Ashikbayev emphasized the role of nuclear-weapon-free zones as a crucial stabilizing component of the international nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime.
Representatives of Central Asian states, as well as diplomats and experts from the ranks of the Review Conference participants, including the heads of delegations of nuclear-weapon States, actively participated in the discussion. Participants particularly emphasized the need to complete the ratification of the Negative security assurances Protocol to the Semipalatinsk Treaty and similar protocols to other zones, as well as the creation of new zones around the world.
The head of the Kazakh delegation also held substantive talks with the heads of the US, Chinese, and German delegations, during which the sides compared notes on current issues on the international security agenda and discussed Kazakhstan's approaches under its chairmanship of Main Committee II of the Review Conference. Kazakhstan consistently conveyed to partners its readiness to contribute realistically and practically to reducing the nuclear threat by implementing the initiative of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to resume dialogue between nuclear powers.
The NPT Review Conference will continue its work until 22 May 2026.
