New York, January 19, 2018 – On January 18 a Special high-level event was held at the UN headquarter devoted to the presentation of the initial draft Code of Conduct to achieve a world free of terrorism, initiated by the President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The document was officially launched by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Kairat Abdrakhmanov.

The event aroused great interest in the UN. Delegations from more than 100 member states of the UN took part in the presentation of the draft and its discussion. Among the high-level participants were the deputy Prime Minister – the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah and the deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Hekmat Karzai. The reports were delivered by the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office Vladimir Voronkov and the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenča.

The Head of the Kazakh foreign ministry Kairat Abdrakhmanov, while opening the meeting, highlighted the significance of goals and main content of the work on the Code initiated by Kazakhstan as a contribution to countering international terrorism. The major goals of the document are the creation of a broad international coalition of partner countries on counter-terrorism and the achievement of a world free of terrorism by the 100^th anniversary of the UN in 2045.

V.Voronkov highly appreciated the efforts of Kazakhstan which brought its unique experiences in ensuring security and sustainable development. He particularly noted the work and role of Astana in the UN Security Council, especially the successful presidency of this main global body in international security and leadership of three sanctions committees related to the fight against terrorist structures. According to a high-ranking UN diplomat, counter-terrorism is one of the top priorities of the Secretary-General's reform proposals. He hopes that the implementation of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (UNGCTS) will ensure better concurrence, capacity building and reliable partnership.

In this context V.Voronkov welcomed the adoption of the Joint Action Plan (JPoA) for the implementation of the Global UN Counter Terrorism Strategy in Central Asia and Kazakhstan's contribution as a donor. He also highly appreciated the initiative of Astana to prepare the Code of Conduct which will be further developed during the following biennial review of the UNGCTS implementation and the meeting of heads of counter-terrorism structures of member states, which will be held by the UN in late June 2018.

Miroslav Jenča in his report noted that the goals of Kazakhstan and the UN on counter-terrorism coincide, and wished success to Astana in its endeavor. Having shared the experience of adopting the JPoA in 2011 when he headed the Regional Center for preventive diplomacy in Central Asia, he praised the plan as a model for other parts of the world. At the same time, the relationship between long-running conflicts, violent extremism and terrorism was stressed, as well as the need to regularly update comprehensive measures in order to prevent armed conflicts in the modern world, including through the use of preventive diplomacy.

The deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan highly estimated the draft Code of Conduct as an important step toward strengthening international cooperation and the counter-terrorism architecture of the UN. He was particularly impressed by some especially important points of the document, such as non-provision of territory for committing terrorist acts, zero tolerance for terrorism, a comprehensive approach, containment of terrorism. Mr. Karzai stressed that the Code of Conduct deserves collective support of the international community and expressed hope for further transparent discussions on the text of the document.

The delegations of the Security Council member states who spoke at the meeting actively supported the initiative of Kazakhstan and expressed their readiness to continue the substantive discussion of the draft for the purpose of further development and reconciliation with the appearance of a comprehensive document that is to become an important basis for strengthening international cooperation in countering terrorism.