Kazakhstan set to hold int'l forum for a nuclear-free world
11:42, 30 August 2011
TANA. August 30. KAZINFORM On October 11-13 Kazakhstan plans a large international event - Forum for a Nuclear-Free World in Astana, Semey and Kurchatov cities to mark the 20th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing range, the Kazakh MFA reports.
20 years ago on August 29 the President of Kazakhstan decreed to shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing range. Over the past 40 years the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing area had been the site of 468 nuclear explosions.
President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed to declare August 29th as the 'International Day of Nuclear Weapons Renunciation' and to prepare new universal treaty of total horizontal and vertical non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. On 2 December 2009, the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared August 29 the International Day against Nuclear Tests.