In commemoration of the International Day against Nuclear Tests and the 30th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk test site on August 31, an International Conference "Kazakhstan-UN: Partnership for Peace" was held at the UN Office at Geneva. The event was organized by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva together with the Library of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan - Elbasy, Delovoy Kazakhstan reports.
Opening the Conference, the Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Ambassador Zhanar Aitzhanova, recalled that in 2009 the United Nations General Assembly declared August 29, the day when by the decree of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan the Semipalatinsk test site was closed, as the International Day against Nuclear Tests. The Ambassador's statement also noted that the closure of the test site was one of the major steps which led to a global moratorium on nuclear testing and the adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996. The signing, in Semipalatinsk in September 2006, of the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia was another important step in the efforts to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world, Zhanar Aitzhanova noted.
The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Tatiana Valovaya noted that Kazakhstan is one of the most affected countries by nuclear testing. It was noted that the UN is grateful to Kazakhstan for its longstanding international efforts to promote nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
Beatrice Fihn, the Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, stressed in her speech the importance of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in January this year, which contains provisions to assist victims of nuclear testing and the environmental remediation. The Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research Robert Geiss also contributed as a speaker to the Conference.
In his statement, the Head of the Non-Proliferation Division of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy Marc Finaud, expressed his concern about the dangerous arms race between nuclear States, as well as on the modernization of nuclear arsenals and the growing risk of the use of nuclear weapons. He also noted the importance of cessation and banning of nuclear tests.
In his speech, the President of the organization "Bike for peace", Tore Naerland, underlined the significance of the call of the First President of Kazakhstan – Elbasy to nuclear countries to commit to destroy nuclear weapons by 2045, the 100th anniversary of the UN.
The Director of the Library of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Elbasy, Bakytzhan Temirbolat, the Deputy Director Timur Shaimergenov, as well as the Director General of the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan Erlan Batyrbekov also addressed the Conference.
During the Conference, the scientific collection in English «On track to a nuclear-free world: Nursultan Nazarbayev’s initiatives» was presented. The collection contains information on N.A. Nazarbayev's initiatives aimed at strengthening a world free from the nuclear threat. During the event also a film about the Semipalatinsk test site was shown.
