Kazakhstan's honorary consulate opens in Johannesburg
ASTANA. KAZINFORM - A delegation from Kazakhstan headed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Askar Mussinov participated in the 25th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Johannesburg (South Africa) on June 12-15, 2015. The AU summit was dedicated to issues of women's empowerment and development towards Africa's Agenda 2063. The issues of strengthening regional security and migration policy were also actively discussed at the Assembly.
Within the summit, the Kazakhstani delegation held a special side event on the topic "Supporting Africa's Agenda 2063: Food, Energy and Water Security." More than 100 representatives of African states took part in it. During the event, a presentation was made dedicated to the international specialized exhibition Expo 2017 and Kazakhstan's bid to secure a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for 2017-2018. Honorable guests and speakers of the event included Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Gambia Neneh Macdouall-Gaye, Liberia - Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, and Somalia - Abdusalam Hadiye Omer, Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa Nomaindiya Mfeketo as well as Deputy Executive Secretary of the UNECA Dr. Abdallah Hamdok, Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission Erastus Mwencha and a number of other commissioners of the AU Secretariat. In his speech, Deputy Minister Mussinov expressed Kazakhstan's position on the support of the AU initiatives on reforming the UN, willingness to continue financial assistance to the African continent, including in fighting against the Ebola outbreak that left thousands of people dead in Africa. Participants of the event were informed of Kazakhstan's initiative to provide food assistance through the Islamic Organization for Food Security making an important and significant contribution of our country to address issues of famine and food security in Africa. On the margins of the summit, the head of the delegation from Kazakhstan held talks with President of Guinea Alpha Condé, foreign ministers of the Republic of South Africa, Gambia, Liberia, Somalia, Malawi, Tunisia, Sierra Leone, Cameron and Mozambique, during which further strengthening of cooperation and mutual support at multilateral forums were discussed. Foreign ministers were presented with personal messages of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Prime Minister Karim Massimov related to issues of non-permanent membership of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the UN Security Council and their countries' participation in the Expo 2017. During the visit to South Africa, the head of the Kazakhstani delegation also participated in the opening of the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Johannesburg. Since November 2014, Kazakhstan has been an observer to the African Union that brings together 54 states of the continent with the population of more than one billion people.