Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Tuesday that his country yielded tangible economic benefits from its decision to voluntarily renounce nuclear arms and urged others to follow suit.
Without naming Iran or North Korea, he described as "irrational" the aspiration to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly session, he pointed to Kazakhstan's decision to renounce its nuclear missile arsenal, the fourth largest in the world, and to dismantle its infrastructure.
"For the first time in human history, a nation possessing destructive force has given it up voluntarily," Nazabaryev said.
"Thanks to that step, the country has witnessed an inflow of considerable investments that have become a foundation of impressive accomplishments in the area of development today throughout the world."
"By taking that step, we have consolidated our independence, having received security assurances of all nuclear-weapon states," he added.
"I have a question for others: why not follow our example instead of wasting astounding amounts on the arms race?"
Kazakhstan has been courted by both China and the West as a promising new energy source and pipelines are being built to connect the landlocked country to the outside world.
Its vast Kashagan oil field is thought to contain 38 billion barrels of oil, of which 13 billion are considered recoverable.
