US Department of Defense conducts course on nuclear security in Kazakhstan

The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) conducted a nuclear safety training course in Kazakhstan, the U.S. Embassy to Kazakhstan reported.

What happened? DTRA’s Global Nuclear Security (GNS) Program partnered with Kazakhstan’s National Guard to conduct a Nuclear Security Guard Force Qualifications training course from July 17-25, 2023 at the Anti-Crisis Training Center (ACTC) in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan.

«The training course included the development and delivery of repeatable exercises and drills to assess unit-level nuclear security guard force competencies and marks an important step in the Kazakhstan National Guard’s intent to create additional nuclear security specialization among its personnel,» the embassy wrote on its page on Facebook.

According to this statement, «This course reflects a new training emphasis on specific units with nuclear security responsibilities, including Ust-Kamenogorsk, Almaty and Kurchatov.»

«DTRA will continue partnering with the National Guard to establish a sustainable and growing nuclear security curriculum and instructor cadre, particularly at the ACTC.»

The context. At the 2023 Conference on Disarmament in February, Mukhtar Tleuberdi, the foreign minister of Kazakhstan at the time, once again highlighted that Kazakhstan is consistent in its support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Kazakhstan will chair the third conference of state parties to the TPNW.

In addition, Tleuberdi said that the world was less safe than before and noted that the war in Ukraine, huge piles of accumulated armaments and lack of dialog are leading the world in a very dangerous direction.