Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, and the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) jointly held a special event on strengthening multilateral cooperation on water on Wednesday at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye, Qazinform News Agency reports, citing the MFA press service.
The Kazakhstan delegation briefed UN representatives, government delegations, and international experts on developing and modernizing Kazakhstan’s water sector. He called for joint efforts to advance President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ’s initiative to establish an International Water Organization, aimed at strengthening coordination and improving the effectiveness of the UN’s work.
Perspectives of further advancing water cooperation within the UN were discussed by UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe Tatiana Molcean; the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Water, Retno Marsudi; UNESCO Deputy Director-General Denise Pires de Carvalho; and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), Askhat Orazbay.
Representatives of UN-Water, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), and other organizations also took part in the discussion. Participants learned about Kazakhstan ’s main achievements in water resource management, as well as its regional and international priorities.
During preparations for the event, representatives of research and civil society organizations from Mongolia, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Namibia, and other countries expressed support for further advancing the initiative to establish an International Water Organization.
At the conclusion, the Kazakh side emphasized its readiness for open and constructive discussions on future mechanisms of international water cooperation and invited participants to continue substantive dialogue at the UN Water Conference, to be held in Abu Dhabi on 8–10 December 2026.
Earlier, Qazinform reported that Kazakhstan signed $1.2 billion in agreements at COP31 in Antalya.