AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry called on the international community to down global military spending on the Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) on April 24.

"The world has entered a new and troubling era. Tensions and conflicts are increasing as are suspicions and competition between major powers. This, in turn, is leading to a new arms race and a greater use of force to defend national interests and expand spheres of influence," the statement said. 

The statement follows: It is against this worrying background that international initiatives such as the Global Day of Action on Military Spending – which Kazakhstan supports - are more important than ever. Launched in 2011, its aim is to encourage countries to reduce military spending which, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, reached $1.7 trillion in 2015.

Since independence 25 years ago, Kazakhstan has championed the cause of peace, co-operation and disarmament. Our own devastating experiences led us to give up voluntarily the world’s fourth biggest nuclear arsenal and close the Semipalatinsk test site. President Nazarbayev has urged the international community to make building “a world without nuclear weapons the main goal of mankind in the 21st century".

In his Manifesto "The World. XXI Century", he also called for measures to  eliminate the use of force as a means of settling disputes. Reducing military expenditure from its present high levels would be a step towards this goal and help ease tensions and the dangerous competition between military blocs.

Kazakhstan also believes that a reduction in military budgets could release funds to tackle hunger and extreme poverty and build a fairer, more prosperous and stable world. These are the aims of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were agreed by the international community in 2015.

The lessons from their predecessors – the Millennium Development Goals - underline the critical importance of extra funding to deliver transformational change. It is why at the UN General Assembly in 2015 President Nursultan Nazarbayev called for each country to divert one per cent of military spending to help achieve the SDGs by their 2030 target.

Even if this initiative does not yet enjoy the support of some governments, at the same time, there is growing awareness among the population of many states that military intervention worsens rather than solve problems.

By eliminating nuclear weapons and transferring even a small part of military budgets of all countries, we could find significant additional resources to support sustainable development. This would, Kazakhstan strongly believes, improve the prospects for security and peace around the world and reduce the need for military spending.