A substantiated interpretation was given to the efforts to contain the build-up of a nuclear arsenal at the High-Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly.
On September 28, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev addressed the plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to Commemorate and Promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, the press office of the President of Kazakhstan reported.
Tokayev noted that despite the prolonged increase in nuclear strategies in a number of countries, combined with the continuing terrorist threat, yet there were positive shifts in this global dimension. In this context, the President highlighted the profound relevance of the start of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the resuscitation of nuclear deal talks with Iran, the extension of the START agreement and the signing of the US-Russia Joint Statement on Strategic Stability.
The President emphasised that Kazakhstan closed the Semipalatinsk test site and dismantled the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal three decades ago.
The leader of Kazakhstan reminded that 15 years later, the Central Asian states declared the region a nuclear-weapon-free territory zone. In fact, this was the first territory without nuclear bases in the Northern Hemisphere, the President emphasised, reaffirming Kazakhstan’s readiness to promote the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Explanations on the Treaty were given. It differentiates between the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and the stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction. The President concluded that creating a nuclear-weapon-free community was a priority of the policy of Kazakhstan.
