The participants from 70 countries of the world who represent all continents attended the conference. Conference participants included prominent politicians, scientists, parliamentarians and representatives from inter-parliamentary organizations. Among them are Head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia Miroslav Jenca, Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko, Foreign Minister of Germany Guido Westerwelle, US Congressman Eni Faleomavaega, and Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative Douglas Roche.
In his speech the President of Kazakhstan recalled that the International Day against Nuclear Tests is currently observed for third time worldwide. The Day was established by the UN General Assembly resolution, which was presented at the initiative of Kazakhstan, the first country in history to have closed the nuclear test site.
“This historical act made by the will of the people of our country 21 years ago has great civilization significance. It was Kazakhstan’s decisive step towards its real sovereignty and independence. Nuclear weapons and radiation was far from being a distant theory for the people of Kazakhstan. It was a terrible and inexorable evil that had been devastating our land for more than four decades. A total of nearly 500 nuclear explosions of the so-called “peaceful purposes” were carried out in the atmosphere, underground and above ground on the test site. This is half of all the tests carried out in the world during the existence of nuclear weapons. Day-to-day radiation poisoned steppes, rivers and lakes, slowly destroying all life around. The Nuclear Devil caused harmful damages to more than one and a half million of people who lived around the test site. The tragic consequences of nuclear testing are felt to this day,” the President said.
The head of state also stressed that the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear polygon launched a new stage of global process of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Sixteen years ago, by the UN resolution the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was opened for signature. Kazakhstan was one of the first to have signed it. Moreover, President Nazarbayev emphasized that nowadays a reduction of global nuclear security strengthening process is being observed.
“We have not reached the universality of the non-proliferation regime. “New” nuclear and some “threshold” countries are still not included in the Treaty. Two years ago, the United States and Russia signed the Prague Treaty which furthered a Strategic Arms Reduction process. However, this did not become an example for other nuclear-weapon states. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) can’t come into force. Signatures of only a few ”threshold” group countries are needed for it to become operative. The issue of the global monitoring of the development of national nuclear power programs remains unregulated. The accident at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant last year clearly outlined for the whole world the problem of technology gap in ensuring safety at the facilities of peaceful atom,” the President said.
The head of state emphasized that the twenty-first century is impossible without nuclear power.
“The solution of problems of poverty, unemployment, lack of food is related to the implementation of projects of peaceful nuclear energy, of course, under the strict control of the UN and the IAEA. That is why our idea of a nuclear-free world has nothing to do with the radio phobia or utopian desire to ever "forget" the secret of energy fission. The nuclear-free world is a complete ban on the military use of nuclear energy. This is the essence of my proposal on the development and adoption of the Universal Declaration of a nuclear-free world. I remain a consistent supporter of this idea,” the President concluded.
Besides, the President also pointed out that the acquiring of freedom from the fear of nuclear self-destruction should become an important initiative of the G-GLOBAL forum established by Kazakhstan. In particular, a step-by-step plan of comprehensive arms reduction with participation of all nuclear states that should be drawn out and adopted by the UN is necessary. The nuclear test ban treaty should be enter into force as well. It is important to work out mechanisms of promotion of states that had cancelled their military nuclear programs.
The President laid a special emphasis on the fact that a nuclear-weapon-free world is our common goal to which the whole mankind should strive for.
“For this purpose, today Kazakhstan is launching its international project called ATOM. The name of the project ATOM is an acronym formed of the first four letters in the English language which reads as «Abolish Testing. Our Mission». As part of this project, anyone in the world who stands against nuclear weapons can sign an online petition addressing the world’s governments to call for a complete ban of nuclear tests and thus, to procure a faster adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. I call the participants of the conference and all the people of the world to support ATOM project and make building of a nuclear weapons-free world our most important goal”, Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
In conclusion of his speech, the President called upon to actively participate in the interactive discussion under the G-GLOBAL format. Within the framework of this format millions of users have a dialogue on a wide range of issues on formation in the twenty-first century a new, fair world order, an important component of which will be a nuclear-free world.
Read the text of the President's speech here.
