On December 16, Kazakhstan will celebrate its 32 years of Independency. Kazakhstan is a young country, but the statehood of Kazakh nation goes back to 15th century when we established Kazakh khanate (or kingdom).
During its history, our people have gone through many challenges and managed to preserve faith in the creation of a sovereign state and just society, without wars and destruction.
Unfortunately, as we all see, today the world has entered a new period of geopolitical confrontation, the number of military conflicts is growing, mutual distrust between countries is deepening, and risks to the security of all states of the world are increasing. Kazakhstan firmly believes that it is necessary to seek diplomatic solutions to conflicts, based on the UN Charter and universally recognized international law. Diplomacy and dialogue should always prevail in the resolution of international disputes.
Kazakhstan will continue multi-vector and pragmatic foreign policy in a new geopolitical reality. We are committed to the basic principles of non-interference in internal affairs, territorial integrity and rule of law enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. We interact with all international partners in the spirit of constructivism, respect and mutual benefit.
Thanks to a peaceful and multi-vector foreign policy, we have established trusting relations with all countries of the world. We have successfully resolved the issues of delimitation of the state border with all neighbouring countries.
In order to strengthen peace and security and develop trade and economic cooperation, we attach special importance to multilateral cooperation within the framework of regional organizations. This year Kazakhstan celebrates the 10th anniversary of cooperation with the African Union. Over the years, Kazakhstan has implemented a number of humanitarian and technical projects and intends to continue to work closely with the AU.
As one of the founding states and current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Kazakhstan put forward the Initiative of «World Unity for a Just Peace and Harmony». This initiative comprises a New Security Paradigm, a Fair Economic Environment, and a Clean Planet.
At the initiative of Kazakhstan, a Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building measures in Asia was established 30 years ago, bringing together about 30 Asian countries with a population of 3.5 billion people. Last year, it was decided to start reorganizing the Conference into a full-fledged international organization.
Our country is one of the founders of the Organization of Turkic States, and as a current chair of the organization, this November Kazakhstan hosted a summit of the heads of State of OTS to promote economic, scientific and cultural cooperation.
20 years ago, Kazakhstan took the initiative to hold Congresses of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions (CLWTR). Today it is an important platform for promoting inter-civilizational dialogue and makes a significant contribution to strengthening interreligious peace and harmony, promoting the ideas of tolerance. The policy of interethnic peace and harmony is successfully implemented in Kazakhstan. At the dawn of independence, forecasts included the possibility of large-scale interethnic conflicts and the risk of losing statehood. Clearly aware of such risks, in May 1993, the Leadership of Kazakhstan spoke about the key ideas of interethnic policy, the main of which was equality of people regardless of ethnicity, faith or language under the law.
The Kazakh Constitution affirms, protect, and strengthen the unity, peace, and harmony of our state. The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, established in 1995, plays an important role in the formation of a unique model of social unity for the nation that comprises more than 130 diverse ethnic groups. The main goal of the Assembly is to implement the national policy, ensure social and political stability in Kazakhstan and increase the efficiency of cooperation between state institutions and civil society in the field of interethnic relations.
The philosophy we are implementing as an independent state is peace, cooperation and good neighbourliness. At the time of disintegration of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan had the fourth largest and most powerful nuclear arsenal in the world. We also had one of the largest nuclear test sites. But we made decision to abandon all this in the name of peace and development and with countries of the region of Central Asia we established a nuclear-weapon-free zone.
Today, the example of Kazakhstan is distinctive in the world community. Modern scientific laboratories have been established in our country for the research and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Kazakhstan is one of the seven countries in the world that has developed and uses its own QazVac vaccine. We now work with partners to establish an International Organization for Biological Safety under the auspices of the United Nations. Kazakhstan is one of the few countries in the world that in cooperation with partners successfully implements the national space program.
Kazakhstan has achieved tremendous success in economic development, becoming one of the leading and largest economies in Central Asia. Kazakhstan is among big exporters of oil, uranium, metals, grain and other products. Our country is becoming a major exporter of IT technologies.
Being the world’s largest LLDC country, Kazakhstan was able to become a Land Linked country. Our infrastructure development program, launched in 2012, is associated with the Chinese «One Belt One Road Initiative» and today about 85% of all land transit traffic from China to Europe passes through Kazakhstan. We are working closely with partners from Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Georgia, China, Russia, Iran, the UAE, Oman and other countries to ensure access to sea routes.
Our relations with Ethiopia are at their initial stage of development. It has been only 12 years since we established diplomatic relations. But we have achieved a lot in this short period of time. We believe that trusting relations between countries play most important significance. Kazakhstan and Ethiopia have very similar positions on many international and regional issues and we cooperate closely on the international arena, primarily within the framework of the UN. We consider Ethiopia as one of our main partners in Africa. Kazakhstan is the only country from Central Asian represented in Ethiopia.
This year, the second round of political consultations was held between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries and we outlined areas of further cooperation. We had productive meetings of parliamentarians of two states, and established parliamentary friendship groups. Cooperation has been established between the institutes of foreign policy studies of the two countries.
In June this year, Former President of Ethiopia Dr. Mulatu Teshome took part in the Astana International Forum, and held a special session on the future role of Africa in the world. The visit of the Ethiopian business delegation, B2B meetings with Kazakh partners took place and there are good perspectives for cooperation in trade and investment. We are interested in expanding the trade turnover between the countries. Ethiopian businessmen have visited Kazakhstan several times and are making plans to export, process and sell Ethiopian products in Kazakhstan and further in Central Asian countries.
Therefore, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan are strengthening their friendship relations and trusted partnership. We are optimistic about our future cooperation and wish to the friendly Government and people of Ethiopia peace, prosperity and success in achieving their goals.
BY BARLYBAY SADYKOV (Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Ethiopia, Permanent Representative to the African Union)
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 2 DECEMBER 2023
