Roza Otunbayeva, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), and Olivier Stolpe, regional representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), met with Kazakhstan’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Akan Rakhmetullin on Tuesday to discuss regional cooperation on Afghanistan.
According to a statement from Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the talks focused on “stability, sustainable development, and counter-narcotics efforts” in Afghanistan. The meeting comes as Otunbayeva leads a UNAMA delegation to Kazakhstan ahead of her participation in the International Astana Forum, scheduled for May 29–30.
While UNAMA has not issued a public statement regarding the meeting, Kazakh officials said discussions covered a broad range of potential areas of cooperation. These include health, education, infrastructure, employment, and joint initiatives within the framework of the planned UN Regional Center for Sustainable Development in Central Asia and Afghanistan, to be based in Almaty.
Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhmetullin reaffirmed Kazakhstan’s ongoing humanitarian support to Afghanistan, noting previous contributions such as food aid, essential goods, medical supplies, and assistance in education-related initiatives.
