Your Excellencies, Distinguished Secretary General,
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Let me express my sincere gratitude to H.E. Minister Ali Bagheri and the Iranian Chairmanship of the ACD for excellent organization of the Ministerial meeting and inviting me to this event.
I am privileged to represent CICA – a unique 28-member platform for dialogue, interaction, confidence building, and cooperation where Iran plays a very active role, supporting and contributing to the CICA process on all levels of interaction.
Let me take this opportunity to pay tribute to the treasurable legacy of the late President Dr. Ebrahim Raisi and the late Minister Dr. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who consistently advocated for reinforcing multilateral diplomacy and greater role of regional organizations like CICA and ACD. By strengthening our multilateral structures, we, in essence, contribute to preserving the legacy of these remarkable statesmen.
Excellencies!
It is my honour and pleasure to address this high-level meeting of top diplomats of Asia, as we all witness an increasingly vital role of our vast continent in global affairs.
Asia has not been spared from the turbulent processes of global power struggle. In these circumstances, multilateralism and inclusiveness stand as the only viable pathways towards ensuring peace and stability.
“Asia is the most powerful force reshaping world order today” – this is what a leading global strategist Parag Khanna writes in his book entitled “The Future is Asian”. He further talks about the “establishment of an Asia-centric commercial and diplomatic system across Indian Ocean to Africa, elevating the appeal of Asian political and social norms in societies worldwide.”
Having been inaugurated at the turn of the centuries, both CICA and ACD are integral parts of that pan-Asian diplomatic system. In this regard, I fully agree with H.E. Minister Ali Bagheri that ACD can “benefit from exchanges and collaboration with regional organisations of overlapping membership”.
Excellencies!
Stretching from the Pacific to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean, covering 90 percent of Asia, CICA is a unique consensus-based multilateral platform, giving equal opportunities to all its members with varying political, economic and socio-cultural backgrounds to jointly discuss ideas, exchange knowledge and best practices, collaborate on initiatives and make decisions based on mutual consent.
By the way, the host country of the ACD Secretariat, Kuwait, was the 28th Member State – the last one so far – to join the CICA family back in 2022 by a decision of the historic Sixth CICA Summit in Astana.
Another ACD Member State, Kazakhstan – represented here today by my dear colleague, Principal Deputy Foreign Minister Akhan Rakhmetullin – is not only the CICA founder and its Secretariat’s host country, but also has been Chair for the past four years and has been primary political and financial supporter of our organisation, with a number of forward-looking initiatives presented by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during the aforementioned Summit in Astana.
Let me also highlight the special place of Azerbaijan. Though not a member of ACD, Baku has consistently supported and contributed to the CICA process, and now is getting ready to accept the Chairmanship from Kazakhstan on November 11 during the main CICA event of the year – the 7th CICA Ministerial Meeting, which is scheduled to coincide with a crucial world-wide event – COP29. In this regard, let me express my appreciation to the CICA Member States for making this Chairmanship decision on the Ministerial level earlier this March.
Since its inception, CICA's primary focus has been on confidence building measures (CBMs) across five dimensions: military-political, economic, environmental, human, and new challenges and threats.
The CICA Member States agreed on joint approaches to interaction to build confidence by upholding the “simple-to-complex” principle – first building confidence, then establishing full-fledged cooperation that leads to greater mutual security, which, in turn, is the prerequisite for sustainable development.
The CICA Catalogue of CBMs is a unique document for Asia that was approved in 2004 and substantially updated in 2021 at the last Ministerial Council meeting. The Catalogue contains 18 priority areas, many of them match or echo the ACD priority pillars.
One of the ACD’s main objectives is “to serve as the missing link in Asian cooperation by building upon Asia's potentials and strengths through supplementing and complementing existing cooperative frameworks”. Shortly speaking, this means ensuring greater connectivity – and that is exactly what CICA is about.
Moreover, one of the key core values of ACD are voluntarism and openness – that is exactly what CICA Member States cherish in their CBM implementation activities.
The reason I am providing this comparison is to send a simple and clear message: we don’t compete, but rather complement each other.
As we live in an era of evolving global security risks and threats, with Asia being the most challenging continent in this context, we are destined to collectively address these risks and threats through multilateral mechanisms, employing our traditional Asian values of prudence, tolerance, and moderation.
Only by strengthening genuine multilateralism based on confidence building measures can we find an adequate response to the challenges of our time and ensure transition from competition to cooperation.
In conclusion, may I express hope that the aforementioned prospects for synergy between structures like CICA and ACD have every chance to foster a safer, more prosperous and interconnected world through collective action and dialogue.
Tashakor mikonam!
24 June 2024, Tehran, Iran
