Russia’s Lavrov to take part in UN conferences on nonproliferation, Afghanistan

UNITED NATIONS, January 18. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to take part in two meetings of the UN Security Council devoted to nonproliferation of the weapons of mass destruction and to security in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Kazakhstan that holds a term of the Security Council’s rotating presidency in January organized the debates in both cases. Moscow praised the Kazakhstani initiative and sized it up as a timely one. "We hope the precisely focused discussion of these issues at the Security Council will reflect the central role of this [UN] body in the search for and elaboration of efficacious solutions to the most pressing problems in the sphere of maintenance of international peace and security," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary. The itinerary of Lavrov’s trip also features separate talks on the sidelines of the meetings with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, and a number of other officials. President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan is expected to chair the January 18 meeting on nonproliferation and trust measures. This will be the first time he will take the chair of the Security Council president. Another President to attend the meeting is Andrzej Duda of Poland. Beside Russia, a number of other countries have also delegated their foreign ministers. Kazakhstan’s ambassador to the UN, Kairat Umarov, told a news conference on January 2 the meeting would not be tied to any particular country but he voiced the confidence the situation around the DPRK would get into spotlight in one way or another in the course of the discussion. President Nazarbayev is going to tell the Security Council members in his address about Kazakhstan’s practice of building relations of trustworthiness with regional countries and to offer his own ideas about resolving the problems of nonproliferation through trust measures. On Friday, January 19, the Security Council will hold debates on building regional partnership in Afghanistan and Central Asia as a model of interdependence between security and development. Kazakhstani Foreign Minister Kairat Abrakhmanov will chair the debates. Secretary General Antonio Guterres will give a news briefing. Foreign ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are supposed to attend the meeting. Moscow has said on many occasions the dangerous situation that taking shape on the background of developments in Afghanistan requires a comprehensive approach on the part of regional countries and the international community on the whole "The experience of international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan proves the inefficiency of the attempts to impose a solution of problems on it by force," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "Serious steps are needed to launch the process of national reconciliation on the basis of Security Council’s resolutions." Read more