Some 40 Ministers of Foreign Affairs gathered at the meeting. In the opening ceremony the participants were addressed by President of Kazakhstan N. A. Nazarbayev, OSCE Chairperson – Kazakhstan's Minister of Foreign Affairs K. B. Saudabayev, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President P. Efthymiou, and Secretary General of OSCE M. P. de Brichambaut.

The informal meeting in Almaty is the continuation of the Corfu Process which serves as a framework for the discussion of the main challenges to the Euro Atlantic and Eurasian safety and the role of the OSCE and its mechanisms in that process. The meeting concentrated on the success achieved by the Corfu Process, safety problems in the OSCE region including the situation in Kyrgyzstan and the consequences of the crisis in Afghanistan. During the meeting all parties reached consensus on holding a summit meeting in Kazakhstan after eleven years by the end of this year.

State Secretary Božinović gave a talk in which he stressed the importance of Euro Atlantic and Eurasian safety, and said that the Corfu Process, as the new framework for the discussion of the safety situation, is a very useful way to identify the safety challenges, as well as to provide a new impetus for the Organisation. The importance of the safety dialogue is relevant in the context of the new global challenges of the 21st century. The State Secretary added that it will take strong political will to meet them.

Croatia approaches these problems in a constructive manner holding that the OSCE, rich in its members and in different political ideas, is a holder of an integral safety concept which has been carefully constructed over 35 years, and is thus a natural place for dialogue on all relevant matters of European and Euro Atlantic safety. State Secretary Božinović supported the idea of the summit meeting in Astana.

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