Astana, December 22 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan has come up with an initiative to host an informal meeting of foreign ministers from Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe member-countries next year, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
Kazakhstan will hold the OSCE chairmanship in 2010.
"An informal summit of foreign ministers from OSCE member-nations will take place in Kazakhstan in the middle of next year," Nazarbayev said at a meeting with representatives of foreign diplomatic missions accredited in the republic in Astana on Dec. 22.
Kazakhstan is still committed to the idea of holding a meeting of OSCE heads of state in 2010, the president said.
The last such summit took place in Istanbul in 1999, he added.
"The situation has changed a great deal in the past decade. In my opinion, there is a need to give an assessment of processes underway in the world today, as well as new challenges in order to formulate our joint measures to counter these challenges in the future. We could all meet up for these purposes," Nazarbayev said.
"A large number of states support this initiative [to hold the summit in Kazakhstan]. We will continue working on this idea," he said.
