OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers appoints Kazakhstan’s Abdrakhmanov as HCNM
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan –Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to Sweden and Denmark Kairat Abdrakhmanov was appointed High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi told reporters at a briefing on Friday evening.
The decision was made during the 27th meeting of the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers that took place online December 3-4.
“Just now, our Ambassador of Sweden and Denmark, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, has been approved as the High Commissioner for National Minorities in the OSCE. This is the first time a representative of a country east of Vienna has been appointed to such a post. Never before have this country, east of Vienna, been represented in such an organisation,” Tleuberdi said.
According to him, the adoption of such a decision was positively influenced by the fact that Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is carrying out democratic reforms and, of course, the rich experience of the diplomat himself.
The minister specified that Abdrakhmanov will be relieved of his post in Sweden and Denmark, since he has now acquired the status of an international diplomat and must be independent.
“He will move to The Hague in the Netherlands, where the office of the High Commissioner for National Minorities is located after all the procedures for transferring cases related to previous work are completed,” the minister said.
Tleuberdi said that several people applied for this position. In particular, a Hungarian diplomat, who specialised in this topic, applied for this position.
Answering journalists’ questions, Tleuberdi noted that the High Commissioner for National Minorities will be in charge of the issue related to Roma, which is relevant for many European countries. When asked by journalists whether Abdrakhmanov would deal with the problems of ethnic Muslims in China, the minister clarified that “this is an issue related to the violation of human rights, and secondly, China is not part of the OSCE”.
