Kazakhstan takes lead in making Central Asia nuclear weapon-free zone

Nur-Sultan [Kazakhstan], August 27 : Kazakhstan has been a staunch promoter of non-proliferation since its independence as the country together with its neighbours, established a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in Central Asia.
The treaty was signed on 8 September 2006. It was subsequently ratified by all five Central Asian states and entered into force on March 21, 2009. In September 2014, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states adopted a joint statement "On the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia", in which they called on the five recognized nuclear weapon states to complete the ratification of the relevant Protocol as soon as possible.
Currently, all the countries of the nuclear five, except the United States, have ratified the Protocol. In 2009, the UN General Assembly unanimously accepted a resolution put forward by Kazakhstan proclaiming August 29, the day when in 1991 First President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, signed a decree on the closure of the Semipalatinsk Test Site, as the 'International Day against Nuclear Tests'.
In 2012, activists in Kazakhstan launched The ATOM (Abolish Testing. Our Mission) Project, international education and advocacy campaign seeking to galvanise global public opinion against nuclear weapon testing and nuclear weapons, said Embassy of Kazakhstan in India.
On August 27, 2015, Kazakhstan and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) signed an Agreement to establish low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel bank in the country to provide the world with a guaranteed supply of the fuel for civic nuclear energy.
In 2015-2017, Kazakhstan and Japan held co-chairmanship in the Article XIV Conference of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, seeking to bring this important international instrument closer to entry into force.
Moreover, in December 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted for the first time the Universal Declaration for the Achievement of a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World put forward by Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan played an important role in ensuring the success of the Iranian nuclear deal in 2015 by hosting two rounds of negotiations between Iran and P5+1 in 2013, as well as directly participating in the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Following the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, Kazakhstan and the United States of America confirmed a shared commitment to implementing practical measures to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime and enhance nuclear security.
In October 2016, Nursultan Nazarbayev announced the establishment of a new prize - the Nazarbayev Prize for a Nuclear Weapon Free World and Global Security.
During its non-permanent membership to the UN Security Council in 2017-2018, Kazakhstan promoted nuclear security globally and urged all member states to set a goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons by the UN's 100th anniversary in 2045, the Embassy added.
In 2019, Kazakhstan ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first multilateral, legally binding agreement to ban their development, testing, stockpiling and use. The Treaty entered into force in January 2021 and in June 2022. Kazakhstan was elected as a Chairman of the third Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) Conference for 2023-2024.
Overall, Kazakhstan is a party to START-I (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
Kazakhstan is the only Soviet successor state to have signed the TPNW and the only former Soviet Central Asian nation to ratify the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS).
The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in his address at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2021 underlined that building a world free of nuclear weapons is a priority of Kazakhstan's foreign policy. This aspiration has become part of our national identity.
It is also worthy to look into the details of the Semipalatinsk Test Site which was closed after the First President of Kazakhstan signed a decree. Notably, the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site was established on the territory of Kazakhstan by the Soviet Union in November 1946.
It was the first and largest nuclear test site of the Soviet Union. On August 29, 1949, the first Soviet nuclear test was carried out at the Semipalatinsk test site.
For over four decades, Soviet authorities conducted 456 nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk site. Their total power between 1949 and 1963 (the year when the tests went underground) was 2,500 times higher than the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
More than 1.3 million people in Kazakhstan were exposed to radioactive fallout during these atmospheric and underground tests, and vast tracts of land are now contaminated in near Semei (formerly Semipalatinsk) and surrounding areas.
In 1989, the Nevada-Semipalatinsk international anti-nuclear movement was established.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, by the decree of the First President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan renounced and decommissioned its nuclear arsenal (1,410 nuclear warheads - the fourth largest arsenal in the world at the time) and shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site on August 29, 1991. In its place, the National Nuclear Centre of Kazakhstan was established in 1992.
Kazakhstan became a party to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) on December 13, 1993, as a non-nuclear weapon state, and, shortly thereafter, a member of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Kazakhstan was among the first to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty in 1996, and subsequently ratified it in 2001.
Kazakhstan ratified the START 1 Treaty in 1992 and four years later, in September 1996, all 104 ICBMs, located on the territory of our country were safely removed to Russia and destroyed, three years ahead of the schedule laid out in the Treaty.
During the period from 1996 to 2000, 181 test tunnels and 13 wells were completely sealed at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.
Since 2004, projects have been implemented with the participation of Kazakhstan, Russia and the United States to eliminate the impact of past nuclear testing activities and strengthen the physical barriers of facilities on the territory of the former Semipalatinsk test site.
In April 2010, the then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the Semipalatinsk test site where he appealed to the world community to follow Kazakhstan's example and stop nuclear tests.