Heads of State and Government from the 56 OSCE participating States and 12 Partner countries are in Astana for the OSCE Summit, set to start December 1 in the Palace of Independence.

As OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakhstan's Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev emphasized, the OSCE Summit - the first since the Istanbul Summit in 1999 and the first ever to be held in Central Asia - offered a unique opportunity to address urgent security challenges including transnational threats such as terrorism and trafficking, and the recent unrest in Kyrgyzstan and the situation in Afghanistan.

"The very fact that after an 11-year pause the Astana Summit was convened this year, when we mark important anniversaries of the Helsinki Final Act and the Charter of Paris, will help to strengthen the OSCE, and consolidate trust and mutual understanding between the participating States," he said.

The Summit was preceded by a three-part Review Conference in Warsaw, Vienna and Astana with civil society and governments to assess the States' implementation of OSCE commitments, OSCE official website reported.