BASIC FACTS

The Kyrgyz Republic is a landlocked country in central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. Kyrgyzstan became an independent nation state after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and is today a unitary parliamentary republic.

Capital: Bishkek

There are no nuclear power plants or research reactors in Kyrgyzstan.

From the 1950s to the 1990s, the Kara-Balta Ore Mining Combine produced uranium concentrate from deposits in central, eastern, and southern Kyrgyzstan for the Soviet Union’s civilian and military nuclear programs. After the fall of the USSR, Kyrgyzstan entered into an agreement with neighboring Kazakhstan and Russia to continue to produce uranium for Russia’s nuclear program. The Kara-Balta plant was modernized in 2007 to produce yellowcake and remove decades’ worth of uranium tailings. Kara-Balta was shut down in 2016.

Today Kyrgyzstan struggles with contamination from radioactive waste, particularly around its Mayli-Suu processing facility. The EU, Russia, the US, and the IAEA have all provided aid to Kyrgyzstan in cleaning up the waste and developing solutions to contamination problems.

TREATIES AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS

• • • • Observer of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
      • Member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 2003
      • Acceded to Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 2004
      • Signed Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1993
        • Ratified in 2003
      • Signed Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996
        • Ratified in 2003
      • Acceded to Convention on Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) in 2015
      • Acceded to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials (CPPNM) in 2015
      • Signed International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (ICSANT) in 2006
        • Ratified in 2007
      • Signed Open Skies Treaty in 1992
      • Acceded to Treaty for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1994
      • Signed Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia (CANWFZ) in 2006
        • Ratified in 2007

REGIONAL GROUPS

• • • • Member of the Asia-Pacific Group
      • Member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
      • Member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
      • Member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

LINKS

Permanent Mission of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United Nations - New York

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic

UN State Summary

Ratifications of Treaties & Membership in International Organizations Related to Disarmament