The comments by outgoing US Ambassador Richard Hoagland were made at an official reception last week and then published on the embassy website.
Hoagland praised the two countries' cooperation on efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons.
"Just very recently, Kazakhstan and the United States, with the assistance of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom, fully secured for the next half century ... enough highly enriched uranium and plutonium to make 775 nuclear weapons," Hoagland said.
He then added: "And today, we are closely engaged with Kazakhstan to construct a world-class facility in Almaty to secure dangerous biological pathogens."
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NATO Missile Defense for Europe
NATO has agreed to provide ballistic missile defense or BMD for all of Europe. This NATO BMD will protect NATO (European and American) military forces in Europe. It will also – for the very first time – protect the civilian population throughout Europe from ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction launched from the Middle East.
Much of this NATO missile defense for Europe – known as the European Phased Adaptive Approach – will actually be provided by the United States armed forces. This will include seaborne AEGIS missile defense on board US Navy ships in the Mediterranean, as well as land based radars and interceptor missiles.
This e-book describes how NATO missile defense for Europe will be organized and implemented.
