United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to visit Central Asia where he will meet with government leaders to discuss development, disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, dpa cited the UN as saying today. Ban will leave UN headquarters on Wednesday, heading to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, for the first stop in the five-nation tour. He will also visit Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. In Ashgabat, Ban will meet Turkmenistan's leaders and visit the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) and the National Institute for Democracy and Human Rights. In Kazakhstan, he will visit the former nuclear test site of Semipalatinsk and hold talks in Astana with the country's president, the parliament's speaker and members. On the way back to New York, Ban will visit Vienna for the spring session of the Central Executives Board and hold discussions with Austrian leaders. He is scheduled to address the permanent council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
