Statement by H.E.Mr. Rapil Zhoshybayev, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the 32nd Session of the OIC Ministers of Foreign Affairs
(June 28-30, 2005, Sanaa, Republic of Yemen)

Mr. Chairman, Secretary-General, Excellencies,

First of all, I would like to thank the Government of the Republic of Yemen for the extended hospitality and excellent arrangements made for this representative meeting.

The Islamic world take an important place in priorities of foreign policy of Kazakhstan. We consider the expansion of interaction with Muslim countries as an essential factor of its further political and economic development as well as strengthening of its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.

Kazakhstan fully supports the process of OIC reforms. We express our consent over the proposals of His Excellency Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, OIC Secretary General on necessity of synchronization of the basic documents of OIC in compliance with the recent developments, which are taking place in the world as well as improvement of effectiveness of the Secretariat General by implementation of structural reforms, optimization of decision making processes.

We stand for the restoration of OIC as an efficient and reputable forum of Muslim countries based on principles of authentication of Islam as a peaceful and progressive religion, increasing the level of education and poverty eradication by realization of consistent social-economic policy, contribution to democracy, human rights and civil society development as well as refuse from the radical decisions and activities.

Financial situation of the Secretariat General and OIC institutions has the significant importance. Sharing the concern of Member-States on current situation in this sphere, we support proposals aimed on settlement of this problem. At the same time, Kazakhstan as OIC Member-State and being accurate payer of its financial contributions to the budget of the Secretariat General of OIC deems that the increase of the OIC budget as well as the new scale of mandatory contributions require additional study in respect to the matter of settlement of current arrears by all Member-States to the OIC budget. Settlement of arrears of Member-states could release the urgency of above matters in many respects.

We would like to express the hope that this meeting of Foreign Ministers of Islamic States being conducted on the threshold of the Extraordinary OIC Summit in Mekkah convened by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia His Royal Highness Abdullah bin Abdulaziz will give an additional impetus for the joint activity on restoration of reputation and dignity of Islamic Umma on the world scene as well as for sustainable development of Muslim community.

Kazakhstan supports the efforts of Member-States on strengthening of trade and economic interaction between OIC countries. The speedy ratification of the framework agreements such as on attracting and mutual protection of investments, on economic, trade and technical cooperation etc. by the Member-States may contribute to this process.

At the same time, under the new world circumstances, we should take more efforts for development of cultural and inter-confessional dialogue on the basis of the unity and universality of human values. In this regard I would like to state that Kazakhstan fully supports the global process aimed at developing dialogue among civilizations and religions.

I would also like to inform distinguished participants that on September, 2003 Astana hosted the First Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, initiated by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan H.E. Nursultan Nazarbayev. Idea of the Forum was aimed on the establishment of constructive dialogue between nations and different cultures as well as ensuring the inter-confessional tolerance.

In this context, the Republic of Kazakhstan requests esteemed Member-States to support the initiative of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on convening the Second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions on September, 2006 in Astana and to take active part in its work.

Lack of trust and stability is a ground for volatility of situation in Asia. Having this in mind, Kazakhstan launched the initiative on development of the process of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). In our opinion, the recent developments in the world proved the need for creation of this Forum where Asian countries can discuss security issues in atmosphere of confidence and cooperation.

Nowadays, we can announce the fact of institutionalization of this process. On June, 2002 the First CICA Summit was conducted, on October, 2004 the Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of CICA took place. During the mentioned events the number of fundamental documents were adopted which had significant importance for regional and global security.

In this connection, I would like to mention that Kazakhstan looks forward for the future of this security structure with confidence and hopes for participation and support of OIC Member-states.

In the OIC framework we should focus our attention not only on political, economic, social and cultural issues, but also on ecological problems which Member-States faced with.

In this connection, allow me to note the fact that Kazakhstan is the only Muslim state refused from the nuclear arsenal - forth on its potential in the world. This decision was in major extent based on the nuclear testing site situated in the territory of Kazakhstan which activity negatively affected on the environment in Semipalatinsk region.

Tests caused damages not only to the population living close to the testing site, but also to those people who lived far away from it.

The deepening of ecological crisis of Aral Sea basin is the negative environmental factor as well. It evidently raises serious concerns, because the main victim of ecological misbalance is the population of the region.

We appreciate OIC Member-states’ political support of the efforts of Kazakhstan on reduction of the aftermath of mentioned ecological problems and would like to express a call to undertake practical measures to eradicate its consequences.

In conclusion, I would like to confirm once again Kazakhstan’s support of reforms conducted in the framework of Organization and express the hope that decisions of this meeting would serve for the welfare of Islamic Umma.

Thank you for your attention.