Bolat Nurgaliyev

Bolat Kabdylkhamituly Nurgaliyev (Kazakh: Болат Қабдылхамитұлы Нұрғалиев, Bolat Qabdylhamıtuly Nurǵalıev) is a Kazakh diplomat and the current Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for protracted conflicts.

Born July 25, 1951, Nurgaliyev studied foreign languages at the State Pedagogical Institute in Tselinograd (now Nur-Sultan). 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 Organisation on January 1, 2007.[1] He was appointed as the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for protracted conflicts for the 2010 Kazakhstani Chairmanship of the OSCE.[2]

Shortly after taking office, Nurgaliyev commented that "The most important task for the SCO now is to further crackdown on terrorism, separatism and extremism".[3]