Agency overview | |
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Formed | 2007 |
Headquarters | Paris, France. |
Agency executive |
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Website | http://thecpfa.com/ |
The Center of Political and Foreign Affairs (abb: CPFA) is a think tank focused on government policies and geopolitics, organizes events and discussions on various geopolitical topics around the world
CPFA has organized numerous events under Chatham House rules and has hosted over a hundred personalities such as: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Kofi Annan, Henry Kissinger, Al Gore, Abdullah Gül, José María Aznar, Sebastián Piñera, Romano Prodi, Brent Scowcroft, Richard Holbrooke, Shimon Peres, Mohamed ElBaradei, Louis Freeh, Turki Al-Faisal since 2007. CPFA has also initiated with the collaboration of Randa Kassis the President of the Astana Platform for peace talks in Syria as well as many other confidential talks on the topics on Syria [1] and Libya. [2]
In 2015 CPFA appealed to the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev to launch a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis and launched a political platform that could assemble moderate Syrian opponents. [3] [4]
The first round of negotiations in Astana was held from 25 to 27 May and chaired by the Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov. The second round of negotiations in Astana from 2 to 4 October 2015 headed by the Secretary of State of Kazakhstan Gulshara Abdykalikova and mediated by Fabien Baussart and the Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Askar Mussinov. [5] [6] The meetings resulted in two resolutions being signed by the participants, which created the Astana Platform and helped pave the way for the Astana process with an agreement between Iran, Russia, and Turkey. [7] [8]
In February and July 2017, the CPFA initiated discussions in Geneva with Randa Kassis to develop a preparatory document to reform the Syrian Constitution. [9] [10] This initiative was promoted during the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi [11] in January 2018 by Randa Kassis despite objections from the Syrian government and part of the opposition. [12] [13]
In 2015, CPFA launched a "Committee of Wise" that would address various issues related to international peace.
The committee gathered several prominent political figures and Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including former Israeli President Shimon Peres, former Vice President of Egypt and the general-director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei, former President of Poland Lech Wałęsa, Guatemalan human rights activist Rigoberta Menchú and the Chairman of the IPCC Rajendra Pachauri, [14] [15] former President of Colombia Cesar Gaviria and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero. The Committee met in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan, where they were received by the President Nazarbayev in the Presidential Palace. [16]
In 2016, the CPFA organised a conference on nuclear non-proliferation chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the presence of Bronisław Komorowski, Jack Straw, Yaşar Yakış and Giulio Terzi. [17]
Foreign relations of Kazakhstan are primarily based on economic and political security consideration. The Nazarbayev administration has tried to balance relations with Russia and the United States by sending petroleum and natural gas to its northern neighbor at artificially low prices while assisting the U.S. in the War on Terror. Kazakhstan is a member of the United Nations, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, North Atlantic Cooperation Council, Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and NATO's Partnership for Peace program. Kazakhstan established a customs union with Russia and Belarus which eventually became the Eurasian Economic Union. President Nazarbayev has prioritized economic diplomacy into Kazakhstan's foreign policy.
Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan.
Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev is a Kazakh politician and military officer who served as the first President of Kazakhstan, from the country’s independence in 1991 until his formal resignation in 2019, and as the Chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan from 1991 to 2022.
Kassym-Jomart Kemeluly Tokayev is a Kazakh politician and diplomat who has served as the President of Kazakhstan since 2019. Between 20 March and 12 June 2019, he served as acting president after the resignation of Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had been president for nearly three decades.
Amanat, previously known as Nur Otan until 2022, is a political party in Kazakhstan. Being the largest to date, it has been the ruling party of the country from 1999, with a membership claiming to be of over 762,000 people in 2007. The Amanat has been led by Erlan Qoşanov since 26 April 2022.
Bakhyt Turlykhanuly Sultanov is a Kazakh statesman, Deputy Prime Minister — Minister of Trade and Integration from January 11 to August 15, 2022, and Minister of Trade and Integration on June 17, 2019. Former Finance Minister, former Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, former Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, former Äkim of Astana.
The Syrian peace process is the ensemble of initiatives and plans to resolve the Syrian civil war, which has been ongoing in Syria since 2011 and has spilled beyond its borders. The peace process has been moderated by the Arab League, the UN Special Envoy on Syria, Russia and Western powers. The negotiating parties to end the conflict are typically representatives of the Syrian Ba'athist government and Syrian opposition, while the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria is usually excluded at the insistence of Turkey. Radical Salafist forces including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have not engaged in any contacts on peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Randa Kassis is a Franco-Syrian politician and a leading secular figure of the Syrian opposition. She was the President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition and the founder of the Movement of the Pluralistic Society. She is a close friend of Sergey Lavrov.
Nurlan Zairollauly Nigmatulin is a Kazakh politician who served as the Chairman of the Mäjilis from 22 June 2016 to 1 February 2022 and from 20 January 2012 to 3 April 2014. Prior to that, he headed the Presidential Administration of Kazakhstan, and was the first deputy chairman of Nur Otan from 2009 to 2012, and äkim of Karaganda Region from 2006 to 2009.
Snap presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan on 26 April 2015 to elect the President of Kazakhstan. This was the fifth presidential election held and second without having any formal opposition candidates. With the highest-ever nationwide turnout of 95.2%, the result was a victory for long-term incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Nur Otan who received 97.8% of the vote, the largest since 1991, thus winning a fifth term in office while his closest challenger, Turgyn Syzdyqov, received only 1.6% of the votes.
Legislative elections were held in Kazakhstan on 20 March 2016. The date was set by president Nursultan Nazarbayev on 20 January 2016, when he dissolved the Mäjilis after it had requested dissolution on 13 January, with the reason cited being the economic crisis caused by low oil prices. Normally, the term of the Mäjilis would have expired in fall of 2016.
Bakhytzhan Abdiruly Sagintayev is a Kazakh politician who was a Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, from 9 September 2016 until his resignation on 21 February 2019. He served as the Äkim of Almaty from 28 June 2019 until he was replaced by Erbolat Dosaev on 31 January 2022 following the 2022 Kazakh unrest which greatly affected the city.
Mikhail Leonidovich Bogdanov is a Russian diplomat. He is Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Special Representative of the President of Russia for the Middle East. He is also Deputy Chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society.
Snap presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan on 9 June 2019 to elect the President of Kazakhstan following the resignation of long-term President Nursultan Nazarbayev in March 2019. This was the sixth presidential election held since Kazakhstan's independence. The elections were not free and fair, and were widely denounced as a sham. Acting president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Nur Otan won the election.
Amirjan Sagidrahmanuly Qosanov is a Kazakh politician, journalist, political activist. He was a main challenger to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in the 2019 Kazakh presidential election.
Fabien Baussart is the founder and president of the 2006 established think tank Center of Political and Foreign Affairs (CPFA), which organizes events and discussions on various geopolitical topics around the world with prominent political figures such as Zbigniew Brzezinski, Kofi Annan, José María Aznar, Mohamed ElBaradei, and Al Gore. Early 1990s, Baussart had been a close friend of Moscow.
The pluralistic society movement is a political party headed by the Syrian politician Randa Kassis, which aims to establish a "free, democratic, secular Syria" by spreading democratic awareness and developing the rules of thinking regarding the concept of freedom.
Astana Platform was created after several meetings in Astana between members of the Syrian opposition forces. The platform is headed by the Syrian politician Randa Kassis.
The Serik Akhmetov Government was the 8th government of Kazakhstan led by Serik Akhmetov. It was established on 24 September 2012, after Prime Minister Karim Massimov resigned the post that he had held since January 2007 and was appointed as the Head of the Presidential Administration. President Nursultan Nazarbayev nominated Akhmetov to be the new PM who was unanimously approved by the Parliament.