Kazakhstan confirms interest in taking on OSCE Chairmanship in 2009

ALMATY, 6 April 2004 - On his second stop during a five-day visit to the Central Asian States, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, discussed Kazakhstan's bid to take on the OSCE Chairmanship in 2009, suggesting it develop an action plan to prepare for this challenge before the candidacy comes up for consideration by the 55 participating States in 2006.

The Chairman-in-Office was received by Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and later held separate meetings with Nurtay Abykaev, the Speaker of the Senate, and Kairat Abusaitov, the Deputy Foreign Minister.

In the meetings, Minister Passy praised the advance of reform and expressed his appreciation for the co-operation of the Kazakh Government with the OSCE. The broad spectrum of OSCE activities was reviewed.

The CiO agreed on the need to broaden the scope of regional co-operation between all Central Asian States, where the OSCE could act as a clearing house for best practices and new initiatives.

As an illustration, he expressed his satisfaction with the transfer of the prison system from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice: "We hope that other States in the region that have not already done so will follow your good example."

He discussed the draft of the new election law in a meeting with the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Zagiba Baliyeva. "We are following this issue, and we shall be seeking the opinion of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights as the appropriate body to provide comment", he said.

Minister Passy raised the issue of the media law recently passed by Parliament, suggesting that such an important piece of legislation should fully meet international and OSCE standards.

In the OSCE Centre in Almaty, he held discussions with representatives of political parties, non-governmental organizations and the mass media, and received a briefing on the Centre's current projects by its new Head, Ivar Vikki.