Almaty hosted the Third Ministerial Conference of the Istanbul Process on Afghanistan with the participation of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. More than 50 delegations, led by the foreign ministers of the participating states, supporting countries and heads of international organizations, attended the Almaty Conference. The participants fully supported the plans of the regional countries to cooperate on Afghanistan and confirmed their willingness to purposefully expand and deepen regional cooperation based on the principles of friendship, respect and mutual benefit.
In his welcoming remarks, President Nursultan Nazarbayev highlighted the importance of regional cooperation and outlined Kazakhstan’s role in the international community’s plans on Afghanistan. He noted that Kazakhstan had been providing political, economic and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan starting from the 1990s directly or through international efforts.
Following the Conference, the participants adopted a final declaration, in which the parties confirmed their intention to continue to support Afghanistan’s engagement in the economic and political life of the region. The Conference participants highlighted the importance of these measures in the context of the withdrawal of International Security Assistance Forces from Afghanistan. They also adopted specific action plans for each of the six packages of the confidence-building measures of the Istanbul Process.
The third Ministerial meeting of the foreign ministers of the Istanbul Process has allowed the regional countries to harmonize their approaches on conducting a policy dialogue with Afghanistan and identify concrete measures of cooperation in the fields of education, economy, fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, and natural disasters, as well as the development of regional infrastructure.
The supporting countries and international organisations expressed full support for the intentions of the regional states and identified forms and conditions of their participation in the development of cooperation measures on behalf of Afghanistan. The sides emphasized their willingness to work closely in the context of international and regional organisations such as the UN, SCO, CICA, OSCE, CSTO, ECO and other.
A number of side events took place during the Almaty Conference. These included a presentation by the mayor of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yessimov on the opportunity to turn the city into a regional hub of multilateral diplomacy; an expert level seminar of the relevant bodies of the member countries of the Istanbul Process on Kazakhstan’s potential as a transit and transport corridor; an exhibition of Kazakhstan’s goods and products for export to Afghanistan.
Kazakhstan remains a reliable foreign partner of Afghanistan. Astana is committed to the development of political contacts with Kabul both in bilateral and multilateral formats.
In accordance with the adopted Declaration, the next Conference of the foreign ministers of the Istanbul Process on Afghanistan will be held in China in 2014. In this regard, Kazakhstan expresses its gratitude to the Chinese side not only for their willingness to host the fourth meeting, but also for full support and contribution to the development of the Istanbul Process.

Statement from MFA Kazakhstan