Bolat Nurgaliyev

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Bolat Kabdylkhamitovich Nurgaliyev (Kazakh:Болат Қабдылхамитұлы Нұрғалиев; Russian: Болат Кабдылхамитович Нургалиев; Chinese:努尔加利耶夫) is a Kazakh diplomat and the current Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Born July 25, 1951, Nurgaliyev studied foreign languages at the State Pedagogical Institute in Tselinograd (now Astana). He joined the Soviet Foreign Ministry, and served from 1980-1992 throughout South Asia. He then was the director of the Department of International Security and Arms Control Department of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry for four years, until he was appointed Ambassador to the United States in 1996. In 2001 he became Kazakhstan’s ambassador to South Korea, and in 2003 the ambassador to Japan. He was appointed Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on January 1, 2007.^[1]

Shortly after taking office, Nurgaliyev commented that “The most important task for the SCO now is to further crackdown on terrorism, separatism and extremism”.^[2]