Kazakhstan says it does not recognize Lugansk, Donetsk republics
Moscow, Jun 17 (EFE).- Kazakhstan does not recognize the separatist Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Friday at the plenary session of the 25th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
“We recognize neither Taiwan, nor Kosovo, nor South Ossetia, nor Abkhazia, and evidently the same principle will apply to the quasi-state territories of Donetsk and Lugansk,” the head of state said.
According to Tokayev, “the current international law is based on the UN statutes.”
“Two basic principles of the UN statutes have come into contradiction: the territorial integrity of a state and the right of people to their self-determination. The founding fathers of the UN apparently did not take this point into consideration or probably left it as a possible future discussion.” he said.
The president said that the contradiction allows some to defend territorial integrity, which “they consider a term, a sacred category,” while others believe that people have the right to have their own state “and can become independent.”
“If the right to self-determination is put into practice throughout the planet, instead of the 193 states that make up the UN today, there would be more than 500 or 600 states on Earth. Of course, that would be chaos,” explained Tokayev.
Shortly before, Russian President Vladimir Putin again defended the decision to recognize the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, appealing to people’s right to self-determination and the precedent of Kosovo, the former Serbian province recognized by the United States and some EU countries.
The recognition of Lugansk and Donetsk by Russia, and the aid agreements signed between the separatist republics and Moscow, were used by the Kremlin to start the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, which it accuses of harassing the people of the pro-Russian territories for eight years. EFE
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