On January 3 Kazakhstan, as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, took part in the Council’s first session in 2017. The Work Program of the Security Council for January 2017 was approved within the session. The Kazakh delegation was headed by Charge d’Affaires of the Republic of Kazakhstan Barlybai Sadykov.
A traditional working meeting of all the heads of the UNSC member-delegations, namely Bolivia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Senegal, Sweden, Ukraine, Uruguay and USA, was held the same day. The event took place at the mission of the Kingdom of Sweden under the chairmanship of this country’s Permanent representative Olof Skoog, who heads SC head in January 2017.
Addressing the UN Security Council members Sadykov pointed out Kazakhstan’s priority areas within this body, such as preventive diplomacy and confidence building measures, non-proliferation, settlement of conflicts and combating international terrorism. In this context, he outlined that the initiative of President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev to convene the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, declared within the UN walls 25 years ago, was successfully turned into reality, and today the dialogue forum decisively contributes to strengthening security on the Asian continent. Emphasizing the relevance of the Kazakh Leader’s Manifesto “The World. The 21 century”, Sadykov drew attention to the importance of joint efforts for creating a world free of nuclear weapon, wars and conflicts by the UN’s centenary in 2045.
The Council’s closed consultations regarding the situation in Syria (on chemical weapon in the country) and Iraq (humanitarian aspect) will be conducted on the 4th of January.
One of the main events of the month, scheduled for the 10th of January, will be the UNSC high level open debates, themed “Prevention of conflicts and preservation of peace”, during which the Council’s members, as expected, will declare their priorities in this field and their support to the UN new leadership. The debates will be attended by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and a number of heads of foreign ministries of the SC member-states, including Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kairat Abdrakhmanov.
Traditional quarterly open debates concerning the Middle East situation, including the Palestinian issue, will take place at the level of permanent representatives on the 17th of January.
In accordance with the SC decision, the year’s first month will be marked by briefings and closed consultations, where the situation in such regions as Yemen, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan (including the provinces of Darfur and Abyei) and South Sudan, West Africa and the Sahel, Mali, Chad, Somalia, Cyprus, Colombia will be discussed, as well as matters of the implementation of 2231 resolution of the Iranian nuclear program.
Kazakhstan will chair the sessions of the UNSC Committees on Somalia and Eritrea, as well as on fighting against terrorist groups.
In January 2017 it is expected to adopt the SC resolutions on the situation in Cyprus and CAR, and also, in case of a consensus among the SC members, on chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic.