Breakfast Roundtable with Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Kairat Umarov

On September 7, 2010 the CSIS New European Democracies Project and the Institute for New Democracies hosted Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kairat Umarov in a roundtable discussion at CSIS. Deputy Minister Umarov outlined the Kazakh government’s preparations for the OSCE Summit that will be held in Astana on December 1-2. The Summit agenda will include the Corfu Process, the Vienna Document, multi-ethnic and multi-religious tolerance, Afghanistan, Central Asian security, and the crisis in Kyrgyzstan. Additionally, the Kazakh government will host comprehensive review conferences on human rights, terrorism, and migration in Warsaw, Vienna, and Astana ahead of the Summit. The Summit will provide an opportunity for all OSCE member states to recommit to the organization's founding principles. Roundtable participants stressed that the participation of U.S. President Barack Obama in the upcoming Summit would underscore the United States' commitment to the Central Asian region, which has long served as a buffer zone between Europe and Asia, as well as would ensure a U.S. voice in overcoming the region's current challenges.