Astana-London: close interaction in certain issues
ASTANA. January 9. KAZINFORM Prospects of further strengthening of Kazakhstan-Great Britain cooperation in bilateral and multilateral formats were discussed during a telephone conversation of Secretary of State-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kanat Saudabayev with his British counterpart David Miliband.
The British Minister noted dynamic development of the bilateral cooperation and congratulated Kazakhstan on assuming the office of the OSCE chairman.
Having highlighted London's interest in closer interaction with Astana in realization of agenda of Kazakhstan's chairmanship in the Organization, as well a unique character of the OSCE, its universal approach to the issues of security, D. Miliband expressed support to the Kazakh side in ensuring balance in all three dimensions of the Organization including military-political, economic-ecological and humanitarian directions.
The parties stressed importance of maintaining various efforts on solution of the so-called "protracted conflicts" on the OSCE space which fall primarily on the post-Soviet countries. These are the Nagorno-Karabakh, Transdniestria and South Ossetia conflicts. As Head of the State Nursultan Nazarbayev noted, deep knowledge of history and current state of these conflicts let us hope that Astana would contribute to their solutions on the post of the OSCE chairman.
The Head of the British Foreign Office said the Government of Great Britain supported Kazakhstan's choice of tolerance as one of its most important priorities of the OSCE chairmanship. According to him, positive experience of maintaining and strengthening inter-ethnic and inter-faith harmony in "cosmopoitical society" of Kazakhstan could be used in promotion of tolerance on the OSCE space.
K. Saudabayev and D. Miliband noted importance of taking efforts on stabilization of Afghanistan by the world community. It was highlighted that the international conference regarding Afghanistan scheduled for January 28 in London with the participation of 80 countries must become an important forum for discussion and development of certain measures of assistance to this state. The conference will also focus on strengthening military security, the measures on assistance to economic development of Afghanistan and participation of regional neighbors in its stabilization. The Secretary of State accepted D. Miliband's invitation to take part in the conference as the OSCE chairman.