Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honor to welcome the participants of the Seminar on the Development of the Military-Political Dimension of CICA, traditionally organized by the Republic of Kazakhstan.
I would like to express my gratitude to the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan for organizing today's seminar, and to the representatives of the Member States for their active participation in it. Special thanks to those delegates who were able to find the opportunity to come from their capitals to participate in the seminar. This underlines the importance attached to cooperation within the CICA and its military-political dimension.
This dimension is the first of the five main areas of cooperation within CICA. The creation of confidence-building measures in the military-political sphere was the basis for the establishment of our Conference, which, over the 32 years of its development, has become a mature multilateral structure of multifaceted cooperation that goes far beyond the issues of security and ensuring regional stability. Nevertheless, the military-political dimension remains among the key areas of our cooperation.
The main goal of CICA is to create an architecture of security and cooperation in Asia based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law, transparency and mutual trust, taking into account the adoption of decisions and actions exclusively on the basis of consensus.
The Member States have developed ten specific confidence-building measures within the framework of the military-political dimension, which are included in the CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures, updated in 2021. This document, which is unique in international practice, reflects collective views and multilateral approaches based on mutual recognition that confidence-building measures, implemented on a step-by-step and voluntary basis, are important for strengthening security on the Asian continent.
The Concept paper for the development of the military-political dimension of CICA and the Action plan are currently being developed by the Coordinator and Co-Coordinator of Confidence-Building Measures in the military-political dimension – Kazakhstan and Türkiye – and will soon be presented for consideration by the Member States. The existing problems related to security, conflict prevention and arms control require strengthening cooperation on a multilateral basis. In today's world, maintaining dialogue of representatives of military establishments and building confidence-building measures between them are of great importance.
I am confident that today's seminar will be another bold step in common efforts of the CICA Member States in this direction.
Distinguished delegates,
I am firmly convinced that today's seminar will serve as a platform for the exchange of promising views in order to further expand cooperation in this direction.
Once again, I express my sincere gratitude to the organizers of the seminar and wish its participants fruitful work.
Astana, Kazakhstan
September 25, 2024
