Azay Guliyev (left) and Ambassador György Szabo meet with Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, 30 August 2016, AstanaASTANA, 30 August 2016 – Following his address Monday at the international conference “Building a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World” in Astana, Kazakhstan, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Vice-President Azay Guliyev (MP, Azerbaijan) met today with the Chairmen of the Senate and Majlis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev – who also serves as Head of Kazakhstan's OSCE PA Delegation – and Nurlan Nigmatulin.

In the meetings, Guliyev expressed appreciation for the strong role that the Kazakh Parliament plays in the OSCE PA and discussed prospects for continued co-operation. The sides also discussed how to further consolidate co-operation between OSCE PA and all Central Asian countries, with the Kazakh parliamentarians expressing firm political will to further develop their relationship and deepen co-operation with the OSCE PA.

The Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Astana, Ambassador György Szabo, also attended the meetings.

In his address Monday to the “Building a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World” conference, Guliyev expressed the OSCE PA’s support for achieving a world free from the dangers of nuclear weapons. He noted that at its Annual Session Tbilisi in July, the PA “expressed our clear support for the start next year of United Nations-facilitated deliberations and negotiations on multilateral nuclear disarmament.”

“Proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their means of delivery continue posing a threat to international peace and security,” he said.

The conference, which commemorated the 25th anniversary of the closing the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan, took place in the Kazakh capital on 28-29 August.

Photos of Vice-President Guliyev's visit to Astana are available here.

His full remarks to the nuclear conference in Astana are available here.