Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi said on Tuesday (18 January) the situation in his country was normalising, following the unrest that shook it in the first days of the new year, and Russian troops, which he said helped prevent a possible coup d’etat, were withdrawing.
Tileuberdi, who briefed a small group of journalists at the Press Club Brussels Europe, will also be visiting Vienna and Geneva in a mini-tour meant to reassure foreign partners and organisations that the situation is returning to normal.
Tieuberdi was reappointed in the new government after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev sacked the former cabinet and appointed a new executive.
Kazakhstan will seek to convey the message that the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-led defence organisation of which it is part, has fulfilled its task and its 2,000-strong contingent was leaving the country, with no strings attached.
“We promised nothing, we are not going to lose our sovereignty,” the minister stressed.
Tokayev asked CSTO to send “peace-keepers” on 5 January to help quell the unrest, and Russia and Belarus dispatched troops the following day. Reportedly, the CSTO troops started leaving the country on 13 January. The complete withdrawal is expected in a few days’ time.
By Georgi GOTEV (Euractiv)