ASTANA. June 3 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan will consider whether to participate in the Ukraine summit in Switzerland, taking its schedule of international events and Astana's official position into consideration, Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aibek Smadiyarov said.
"Our country's participation in this summit will be considered in light of the schedule of international events and Kazakhstan's official position on this issue. Kazakhstan has historically maintained equally close political, economic, cultural and humanitarian relations both with Ukraine and Russia," Smadiyarov said at a press briefing in Astana on Monday.
Kazakhstan has always spoken in favor of maintaining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and has been committed to observing the principles of the UN Charter, he said.
"In this context, we consistently stand for a peaceful solution to this conflict, which should be resolved within the framework of bilateral relations between these countries," Smadiyarov said.
At the same time, Smadiyarov described Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's recent interview given to journalists from Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries as "questionable".
"I, as the Kazakh Foreign Ministry's press secretary, would not like to comment on the Ukrainian leader's interview, but we cannot leave that without attention either. As far as we know, the Ukrainian side initiated this project on its own and invited representatives of a number of private media outlets to Kiev for an interview. This information was not received by the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan via official diplomatic channels. I'd like to say that this entire undertaking is rather questionable. It [the interview] turned out to be more emotional rather than rational. It would have been much easier to address the Kazakh audience via Ukrainian media," Smadiyarov said.
Switzerland is due to host a Ukraine peace summit on June 15-16. The participants in the conference, which Russia will not attend, are expected to discuss the so-called peace formula proposed by Kiev.