On the 14-th of January, 2021 Washington Center on Strategic Risks organized an on-line workshop  “A Nuclear-Only Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty: Concepts and International Considerations”.

The American independent not-for-profit institution was set up 5 years ago to conduct systematic research on threats to international security and work out expert recommendations for practical measures in the field of strategic and conventional arms control. Around 20 analysists from the USA, some European and Asian countries took part in the event. Kazakhstan was represented by the Deputy Chair of the Board of Foreign Policy Research Institute under the RK MFA Bolat Nurgaliyev.

The presentation of a new concept of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was made by Rose Gottermoeller, Payne Distinguished Lecturer at the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation,  Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, ex-Secretary General of the NATO. In particular she emphasized her hope that with the new US Administration there would be a  constructive advancement of arms control negotiations with Russia and other nuclear powers. 

Within the  framework of discussion of practical aspects of promoting the renewed concept the Kazakh expert Bolat Nurgaliyev drew attention of the workshop participants to urgent necessity of restoring trust in international relations and ensuring global solidarityin the fight against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons for any goals. A special stress was made on  the initiatives of our country in the realm of achieving a nuclear-free and other weapons of mass destruction-free world. The expert community of different countries was called to join efforts in prodding political leadership to strict observation of obligations under previously concluded arms control international agreements.