(Nur-Sultan) Pope Francis delivered a eulogy on multilateralism amid the logic of ‘blocs’ heightening the risk of new conflicts on Tuesday, on the first day of his visit to Kazakhstan, amid war-related tensions in Ukraine.
Posted at 10:51 a.m.
“I come at the time of the crazy and tragic war caused by the invasion of Ukraine, while other confrontations threaten our time. I come to amplify the cry of so many people who implore peace,” the Argentine pope said during his first address to the authorities and the diplomatic corps in the capital Nur-Sultan.
“We must avoid accentuating rivalries and strengthening opposing blocs. We need leaders who, at the international level, allow peoples to understand each other and dialogue, and engender a new ‘spirit of Helsinki’”, he added in reference to the 1975 agreements.
Signed at the end of the Helsinki conference on security and cooperation in Europe, these agreements confirmed the détente between the West and the Soviets after decades of the Cold War.
In order to “strengthen multilateralism”, the pope insisted on the need to dialogue “with everyone”, in an implicit allusion to Russia, while the Holy See has been striving since February to maintain diplomatic contact with Moscow while denouncing a “cruel and senseless” war.
He also praised the strengths of Kazakhstan, “country of encounter” between many ethnic groups, at the “crossroads of important geopolitical nodes”, seeing it as a “unique multicultural laboratory”.
Resuming the main pillars of his pontificate, Jorge Bergoglio hailed “the renunciation (of Kazakhstan) of nuclear weapons”, its “energy and environmental policies centered on decarbonisation”, the “inter-religious dialogue” or even “the affirmation of the value of human life through the abolition of the death penalty”, enacted in January 2021.
He also referred to the “democratization process aimed at strengthening the powers of Parliament and local authorities”.
Mr. Tokayev, who came to power in 2019, has launched a series of reforms and proposed the holding of an early presidential election in the fall. Human rights defenders, however, continue to denounce the repression of any real opposition in Kazakhstan and the authoritarianism of power.
According to the pope, who also referred to the deadly riots that shook the country in January, the involvement of civil society and the fight against corruption constitute “the most effective response to possible extremism”.