ASTANA, March 1. /TASS/. Kazakhstan believes it’s necessary to have a discussion of about the next edition of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty after 2026, the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement followed a speech by Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi at the Conference on Disarmament High Level Segment in Geneva.
"Kazakhstan, as a staunch supporter of nuclear disarmament, considers it necessary to discuss the issue of the next Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty after 2026. It’s also important that the five nuclear powers demonstrate a firm commitment to the joint statement adopted in January 2022 on the inadmissibility of nuclear war," the statement said.
Tileuberdi noted that the situation in the world has become more dangerous over the past year. The conflict in Ukraine, huge nuclear arsenals, escalating nuclear rhetoric and a lack of dialogue are leading the world in a dangerous direction.
"The minister stressed that Kazakhstan consistently supports the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and will preside at the Third Conference of the States Parties to the TPNW," the ministry said in the statement.
It was noted that special attention of the conference participants was drawn to the initiative of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to establish an international agency for biological safety. "This agency could act as an executive body of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons and pay special attention to the needs of developing countries," the Foreign Ministry said.
The Conference on Disarmament is the only permanent multilateral disarmament and arms control negotiating forum. The Conference on Disarmament has developed such agreements as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Biological Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.