Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Mr. Akylbek Kamaldinov participated in the 6th Ministerial Conference of Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process on Afghanistan in Amritsar on December 3-4, 2016.

In his address, Mr. Kamaldinov said that Kazakhstan would continue to actively contribute to international efforts to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan at both multilateral and bilateral levels.  He expressed confidence that further promotion of regional cooperation would help the emergence of Afghanistan as a stable state, whose territory would not foment security threats including terrorism and drug crimes in the region.

He stated that Kazakhstan has become the first country in Central Asia to be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018, which would be an additional opportunity for strengthening security and stability in the region. He called on the regional countries to unite in the fight against international terrorism, extremism, illegal migration, drug trafficking and other global challenges and reaffirmed that these issues would be the highest priority in the forthcoming Kazakhstan's membership in the UN Security Council.