ASTANA, Kazakhstan, January 30. Kazakhstan has assumed the chairmanship of the Central Asian Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (CANWFZ), Trend reports via the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The chairmanship was transferred to Kazakhstan during the annual consultative meeting of the signatory states to the Central Asian Treaty on a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone.
Throughout the meeting, participants engaged in discussions regarding collaborative efforts for 2025, as well as plans for the current year, with a particular focus on coordination within the United Nations framework.
As the newly appointed chair, Kazakhstan's delegation emphasized that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the treaty's signing in Semipalatinsk. They underscored the critical importance of sustained cooperation on key disarmament and non-proliferation platforms, notably the Review Conferences of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
The CANWFZ Treaty, also known as the Semipalatinsk Treaty, was signed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan on September 8, 2006, and entered into force on March 21, 2009, after being ratified by all five parties.
The Semipalatinsk Treaty created the first nuclear-weapon-free zone in the northern hemisphere, in a region that was once a testing ground for nuclear weapons and a hub for uranium mining for military purposes.
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