Participation of NATO in OSCE summit to help Afghanistan.

LISBON, November 21 (Itar-Tass) - Kazakh head Nursultan Nazarbayev
addressed on Saturday the meeting of the NATO North Atlantic Council on
Afghanistan, taking place here on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
"Kazakhstan announced the 'Afghan' topic one of its priorities since
the first day of its chairmanship in the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation In Europe," emphasised the Kazakh president in his speech.
"This was a natural move, since Kazakhstan renders years-long support
for efforts of the international coalition, becoming the first state in
Central Asia that joined the International Security Assistance Forces," he
said.
Nazarbayev noted that Kazakhstan supports a balanced and thought-out
approach to fixing a time for withdrawing the International Forces.
The Kazakh head noted Kazakhstan had lost around 1,000 citizens back
at the time of the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan. "Therefore, we
understand quite well the problems of much-suffering Afghan people and
coalition member states," he emphasised.
In the Kazakh president's opinion, it is necessary to single out
primary roots and sources of existing threats in Afghanistan in order to
efficiently fight them. According to Nazarbayev, one of such is the
unsettled situation in the Middle East, as well as covert assistance to
violence and confrontation in Afghanistan by outside forces. "In this
connection, it will be difficult to reach peace and stability in
Afghanistan even after 2014 without comprehensive solution of these
problems," Nazarbayev noted.
It was specially pointed out that Kazakhstan has been helping for nine
years to deliver non-stop supplies to the international forces in
compliance with agreements on transit of non-military cargoes between
Kazakhstan and NATO as well as bilateral agreements with the United
States, Germany, France and Spain.
During the years of the anti-terrorist operation 13,000 air flights
were made over Kazakhstan and 15,000 containers by rail were carried for
the International Forces and troops of the coalition.
Special attention was given to the need for using both bilateral and
multilateral formats of cooperation in determining an approach to settling
the situation in Afghanistan.
"Along with the gradual withdrawal of international forces, it is
necessary to step up comprehensive social and economic support for
rehabilitation of Afghanistan, taking into account cultural, religious and
historic particular features of Afghan people," the Kazakh head continued.
Besides, in 2007 Kazakhstan adopted a special Plan for rendering
assistance to Afghanistan, in compliance with which 1,000 Afghan students
study civil specialities, starting from this year. A total of 50 million
US dollars were appropriated for this purpose.
Nazarbayev noted that Kazakhstan could be a convenient base for
supplying resources for the operation of the International Security
Assistance Forces in Afghanistan, providing them with food, building
materials and training specialists in various spheres.
The president added that the OSCE summit, the first in the new
millennium, would be held in Astana on December 1-2. The OSCE is an
organisation, playing the key role in ensuring Euro-Atlantic and
Euro-Asian security.
"The summit in Astana, along with resolving basic questions of OSCE
development, is capable of giving a powerful jab in the arm to
stabilisation in Afghanistan; and we hope for personal participation of
NATO heads of state and government of member countries and its partners in
the Astana summit," Nazarbayev underlined.
-0-bur/kud