Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin said today that chairing the OSCE would facilitate further democratization.
He said it would also encourage other Central Asian States to move toward further liberalization and openness of political and economic systems.
Tazhin was speaking in Vienna to the OSCE Permanent Council, the organization's main decision-making body.
Kazakhstan And The OSCE
READY TO LEAD THE OSCE? Kazakhstan has been lobbying to be granted the rotating chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2009. In March, current OSCE head Karel De Gucht visited the country and said Kazakhstan is better prepared to head the OSCE than any other Central Asian country. But concerns about the state of democracy, the media, and ethnic relations make Kazakhstan's bid extremely controversial....(more)
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