Idrissov calls Asian states to cooperate in energy security

Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Yerlan Udrissov has called Asian countries to cooperate in water resources management and ensuring food and energy security, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Foreign Ministry’s press-service. According to the press-service, Yerlan Idrissov took part in the 11th meeting of foreign ministers of the Asia Cooperation Dialog (ACD) member-countries during his trip to Tajikistan on March 29. According to the authority, Kazakhstan diplomat called to activate cooperation of the Asian countries in high-quality management of water resources and provision of food and especially energy security. “According to the UN, 1.5 billion people in the world currently have no access to electricity and another 2.4 billion are not provided with fuel. That’s why Kazakhstan chose the Energy of the Future subject for the international exhibition EXPO-2017 it is going to host,” Idrissov said. He also invited all the event’s participants to take part in the exhibition with their national pavilions. During the forum Idrissov had meetings with foreign ministers of Iran (Ali Akbar Salehi), Kyrgyzstan (Erlan Abdyldayev), Afghanistan (Zalmai Rassoul), Kuwait (Sheikh Sabah Al-Hamad) and head of the Japanese delegation Minoru Kuiti. Asia Cooperation Dialog was established in 2002. It currently joins 32 countries of the region. Kazakhstan views ACD as the complementary and partnership platform for the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building in Asia initiated by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1992. Kazakhstan is currently the coordinator of three ACD projects in agriculture, transport and energy.