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Updated: 19-Dec-2006 NATO Speeches

NATO HQ,
Brussel

4 Dec. 2006

Press Briefing

with the NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

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Kazakh President discusses regional stability at NATO
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MODERATOR: ...NATO Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan will be happy to take your questions. But before they will start by saying a few things (inaudible). Secretary General.

JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER (Secretary General of NATO): Let me just say very briefly that we are very happy indeed to be able to greet President Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, here at NATO Headquarters.

Kazakhstan being the most active partner in the region, having an Individual Partnership Action Plan with NATO and using that to the full. Kazakhstan as a very important regional player, economically and politically. Kazakhstan, not only interested in, but supporting the NATO ISAF operation in Afghanistan.

In other words, President Nazarbayev is here as president of a nation which is an important partner for NATO, be it in the sphere of interoperability, be it in the sphere of defence cooperation project, be it in the sphere of civil emergency.

And I'm very sure that President Nazarbayev's visit will give a further impulse and impetus to intensifying the Kazakh-NATO cooperation.

Thank you.

NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV (President of the Republic of Kazakhstan): Thank you, Mr. Secretary General and I totally share and agree with the information which you have just provided. For the last ten years Kazakhstan has been actively cooperating with NATO. And we are interested in regional security, so to protect the independence of Kazakhstan and develop our independent state that was established 15 years ago.

And all these ten years the relationship with NATO has been progressing  gradually and we have established a partnership agreement according to which Kazakhstan works with NATO in the format of 26-plus-1 and we have Kazakhstani offices working here in the Headquarters of NATO, and also we have a Kazakhstan Battalion peacekeeping regiment and the soldiers of that regiment are equipped and trained according to NATO standards.

And being a member of anti-terrorist coalition, Kazakhstan from the very first day supported the war against terrorism in Afghanistan and Kazakhstan airspace was open and is open for the flights of NATO planes, and thousands of NATO planes have flown through the territory of Kazakhstan and our country is used as a transit country and now Kazakhstan wishes to be a part of economic rehabilitation and rebuilding of Afghanistan.

And I concede that we had very productive negotiations. We have discussed the issues of regional security, of global security and part and the role that Kazakhstan can play in these processes.

Thank you.

MODERATOR: We'll take a few questions... you can put them in English or (SPEAKING IN KAZAKH)... We'll start with the lady here.

Q: This is Kazakhstan's Pravda(?) newspaper and Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, you just underlined the success and achievements of the cooperation between NATO and Kazakhstan, but what are the prospectives and what are the future fields for collaboration between NATO and Kazakhstan?

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Well, as I said the visit by the President gives impetus of the many forms of cooperation we have. We have.... we have more specifically discussed, to give you one example, Kazakhstan's great interest in supporting Afghanistan in its process of reconstruction, of nation-building, of development. And in that way assisting the United Nations mandated NATO-ISAF operation to come to regional stability in the provinces in Afghanistan.

The President mentioned Kazbat, which is of course very important in the framework of interoperability. I mentioned civil emergency planning. And you know, the Individual Partnership Action Plan gives us a lot of fields in which we can cooperation. And let's not forget we discussed regional security as well, and the role, the important role, Kazakhstan is playing in the debate about regional security.

NAZARBAYEV: And cooperation with NATO is necessary for the young army of Kazakhstan. We need the language training for our officers, the management training for the officers for the army, and we plan to continue this collaboration.

And the Kazbat, which you just mentioned, takes part in joining military exercises, international exercises, and NATO exercises, and as I said, all the soldiers and officers are equipped, trained according to NATO standards. And the Kazakhstan Battalion has grown up to the size of  brigade, so I think we will continue cooperation in this field with NATO so that in the future the soldiers and officers of that brigade can participate as full-fledged members of peacekeeping operations in the world, and this is important, both for Kazakhstan and for the officers and soldiers of that battalion.

MODERATOR: The second and the last question. Paul, please.

Q: Paul Ames from the Associated Press. May I ask, have you discussed the issue of energy security today and would Kazakhstan be interested in securing assistance from NATO to protect its energy infrastructure?

NAZARBAYEV: Well, we have touched upon this issue at the previous meeting with the president of the EU, Mr. Barroso. And we understand serious interest of European countries to the hydrocarbons of the Caspian Basin where a big part of resource belongs to Kazakhstan and we, of course, have discussed these issues.

We do not see any direct threat to the oil reserves of the Caspian, where major international companies operate successfully today. But stability in the region, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, is of crucial importance for the future of that region, for the stability of the region both in political and in energy sense.

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Let me briefly add that, as you know, because I've given the answer before, NATO considers the protection of critical infrastructure, of course, first and foremost as a national responsibility. But you've seen energy security mentioned in the Riga declaration and I, of course, briefed President Nazarbayev on the Riga Summit.

And in the coming discussion of defining NATO's added value in the discussion on energy security the partners of NATO, including Kazakhstan, will certainly play a role.

Spasibo.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

 

 

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