To mark the 25th anniversary of the Eurasian National University the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) and the ENU International Relations Department, Jean Monnet Chair European Diplomacy, organized on 6 May 2021 an online Forum for university faculty and students on the topic ‘Kazakhstan in Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation’.
The key note speaker on the topic was Dr. DastanYeleukenov, Adviser to the Director, Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He is a renowned nuclear scientist and a diplomat who served as Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Sweden and MFA Director for International Multilateral Cooperation. He provided insights from the formation of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy on nuclear disarmament and the specific circumstances that shaped major steps towards its implementation – from the closure of the Semipalatinsk Test Site, to the renouncement of the inherited nuclear ballistic arsenal, from the accession to the NPT as a non-possessor state, to the establishment of the Central Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. Ambassador Yeleukenov answered questions related to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, including through the ongoing construction of the NPP in Uzbekistan, and the planned NPP in Kazakhstan. He also described as logical the expectations about the renewal of the implementation of the JCPOAbetween Iran and the P-5 plus Germany.
The Forum was an event in line with the ENU long standing tradition of public lectures on topical issues by prominent scholars and diplomats. It attracted the attention of students in international relations from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but also members of think tanks such an KazISS and the MFA Foreign Policy Research Institute, the Nuclear Society of Kazakhstan, etc. While providing a vote of thanks to the speaker, Prof. D-r ZhanarMedeubayeva, Head, Jean Monnet Chair on European Diplomacy noted that students at the University have a lot to learn from high ranking professionals that combine academic with diplomatic career.
The Forum also coincided with activities within the project‘Building Capacity on Multilateral Verification of Nuclear Disarmament’, currently implemented jointly by the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC) and ISTC.