Nursultan Nazarbayev Delivers Video Message to Boao Forum for Asia
A video message of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was shown at the plenary session of the Boao Forum for Asia. The main theme of this year’s conference is ‘A World in Change: Join Hands to Strengthen Global Governance and Advance Belt and Road Cooperation.’
The Forum opened with a special video message from the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping. He said that his country would continue its policy of openness to the world and called on the partners to use all the opportunities of Beijing’s ‘Belt and Road’ initiative jointly and effectively.
In his speech, Nazarbayev emphasized the importance of the Boao Forum, which over the past 20 years has become a valuable international platform for discussing relevant issues of development not only in Asia, but throughout the world.
According to the First President of Kazakhstan, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to profound changes in everyday reality around the world and has exposed serious political, socioeconomic, and humanitarian challenges for the international community. At the same time, the crisis is already providing an opportunity for humanity to take a fresh look at the current reality and draw several important conclusions.
As Nazarbayev noted, ‘the pandemic has shown the important role of the state in challenging times - thanks to the effective measures of the authorities, many countries have managed to avoid the worst-case scenario for this crisis.’
In addition, everyone has become convinced that our planet seems to be a rather fragile organism, which ‘must be valued and protected’.
Due to the pandemic, globalisation and other processes of engagement between states and peoples have slowed down, while mistrust between people has increased, which negatively affects the global economy and politics.
‘We are seeing a rise in protectionist sentiment around the world. Politically motivated decisions are being introduced that have a critical impact on international economic relations. The world should not be allowed to plunge into a spiral of selfish unilateral decisions’, Nazarbayev emphasized in this regard.
According to him, ‘the new principles of international agreements should be permeated with the spirit of interaction between equal and responsible partners.’ They should be based on mutual respect for cultural, social, and political traditions, economic features and values of each country. The pandemic has convincingly demonstrated ‘the inevitability of a choice between a world of competition and a world of cooperation.’
As Kazakhstan’s First President pointed out, ‘without global control over the disease, the success of individual countries in the future will not bring the desired effect’.
‘Cooperation between vaccine manufacturers and governments to solve the issue of mass vaccination across the planet is important for humanity. Competition and politicisation in this matter are counterproductive’, he stressed.
Regarding the Belt and Road Initiative, Nazarbayev recalled that it was in the capital of Kazakhstan that Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled it in 2013.
‘For Kazakhstan, this initiative has become a window of new opportunities. Today, the shortest routes connecting Asia and Europe, North and South, the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic and Indian Oceans pass through our country’, he emphasised.
Today, 11 transnational routes have been established through Kazakhstan, of which five are railway and six are automobile, including the Western Europe - Western China highway with a length of 2,700 km, as well as railways from Kazakhstan to the Persian Gulf and South Asia.
‘All this made it possible to create a competitive transit hub in the country. Now, goods from anywhere in Asia can reach the cities of Northern Europe in just two weeks through our country. Thanks to this, even in the crisis year of 2020, the growth of container traffic in the direction ‘China-Europe-China’ through Kazakhstan amounted to more than 60%’, Nazarbayev noted.
In conclusion, Kazakhstan’s First President emphasized that ‘over the past years, the Belt and Road Initiative has proven its viability and significance for promoting progressive ideas of cooperation and globalisation’.
A few other heads of state including from Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Chile, and Sri Lanka also spoke at the forum.
The Boao Forum for Asia (BAF) is a non-governmental and non-profit international organisation designed to promote regional economic integration and joint development of Asian states, including by organizing an annual international conference for this purpose with the participation of prominent politicians, businesspeople, scientists, experts, and the media. This year BAF is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The founding session of the Forum was held on February 26, 2001, in Boao (Hainan Province, China).
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan
