Kazakhstan suggests launching UN regional center in Almaty

Almaty could host UN humanitarian assistance storehouses, Tengrinews.kz reports, citing the country’s Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov as saying.

“In the recent few years Kazakhstan has become a home for some UN regional structures and other international organizations. These are a good prerequisite to launch a UN regional center in Almaty (…) which could be focused on humanitarian dimension, including construction of UN humanitarian assistance storehouses to be used in emergency situations. Such facilities will be of use to the region”, the Minister said when speaking before the country’s Senate.

He elaborated that the vast territory between Vienna and Bangkok lacks meaningful UN representation offices. Kazakhstan suggests raising the status of the current UN’s presence in Almaty to that of a UN regional center to be headed by a UN Deputy Secretary General.

Mr. Idrissov emphasized the center could be focused not only on Central Asia and Afghanistan, but also the Caucasus, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia.