Kazakhstan for UN Security Council

The international esteem in which Kazakhstan's foreign policy is held, marked by its profound devotion to peace and sustainable development, active non-proliferation, energy security, and further rapprochement between East and West, has encouraged the leadership of the country to bid for UN Security Council membership in 2017-2018.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev addressed this endeavour as being the priority in foreign policy, regarding it as the zenith of Kazakhstan peace-making efforts in conflict resolutions and helping people in devastated regions. The outstanding role played by Kazakhstan in nuclear disarmament, the creation of a climate of peace and co-operation in Central Asia, integration and innovation initiatives in political and economic areas for the whole of the Eurasian continent, all these have been the calling card of the country though years of President Nursultan Nazarbayev's leadership.

The stability and multi-vectoral foreign policy has attracted more than $200 billion in foreign investment including $40bn in oil and gas, while the government is continuously demonstrating the will to further improve the business climate. The intertwined progress in economy and politics has led Kazakhstan to bid for UN Security Council membership. Bringing its foreign policy concepts into a framework of the United Nations Security Council will be equally beneficial for the international community, which has been devastated by numerous ongoing and frozen conflicts. At present, Kazakhstan has accumulated considerable know-how in operating within international organizations to promote its foreign policy doctrines of piece, security, conflict resolutions and humanitarian aid directing to harmonization of the world order.

These numerous successful experiences preceded the decision to bid for membership of the UN. Kazakhstan investment in the normalization of life in Afghanistan, as well as actively participating in international efforts to re-create statehood and governance has increased following the 2014 withdrawal of international forces. These efforts are held in high esteem by the Afghans, enjoying different bilateral programmes, including educational, as a significant part of the framework of regional co-operation on Afghanistan in Istanbul, including a number of confidence-building measures in trade, regional development, infrastructure, industry, and fighting drug trafficking.

The attention to Afghanistan through the prism of Central Asian concern for stability and security in the region has been one of the priorities of Kazakhstan chairmanship in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010, which was appreciated by international community, underlining the exceptional role played by President Nazarbayev. However, the major achievement of this chairmanship is largely regarded as bringing a Eurasian dimension into the work of the organization, including security problems related to Afghanistan, attention to failed states and the range of related security and environmental problems.

The OSCE experience had further implications during the chairmanship in the Organization of the Islamic Co-operation (OIC) – the second largest after the UN – in 2011, where Kazakhstan demonstrated its capacity for a swift humanitarian response. $500,000 were raised for starving Somalians for food delivery relief from severe drought. Kazakhstan also called upon the OIC for humanitarian aid to Libya, and initiated a debate within the organization on crisis resolution in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. However, the peace initiatives of Kazakhstan do not limit themselves to chairmanships of international organizations.

The ongoing efforts to encourage conflicting sides in Ukraine to find a compromise has had a positive influence on the Normandy process, which was later reformed into Minsk talks. Next to peace-making initiatives, Kazakhstan invests in the promotion of a dialogue between politics and different faiths: the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions has been growing remarkably in the past decade from a modest forum to a distinguished event uniting 80 delegations from 42 countries, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praising Nazarbayev for initiating the congress, very much needed in times when the world is suffering from religious extremism and terrorism. Concluding two decades of Kazakhstan's contribution to international peace and stability, in 2013 the country declared its intention to bid for a non-permanent member seat on the UN Security Council for 2017-2018. The election is to be held in November 2016 at the General Assembly in New York.

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