The delegation of the CICA Secretariat, headed by the Executive Director Ambassador Kairat Sarybay, participated in the High-Level International Conference titled “Regional cooperation of Central Asian countries within the framework of the Joint Action Plan for the Implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy”, held in Tashkent on 3-4 March 2022.
The officers and experts of the Secretariat had a good opportunity to scrutinize the experience of strengthening the collective regional capacity in the field of preventing and combating terrorism under the leadership of the UN and its Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (UN GCTS). The relevant practices of the Central Asian countries will certainly be in demand within the broader framework of CICA.
In this context, Ambassador Kairat Sarybay held quite productive meetings with Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism Vladimir Voronkov and United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime Regional Representative to Central Asia Ashita Mittal. Agreements were reached on certain directions and specific areas of further interaction between CICA and these UN structures, whose expertise can be used in the course of implementation of the relevant confidence building measures and, more importantly, in the development of its own CICA Action Plan for the Implementation of the UN GCTS.
The presentation of the Secretariat's Expert on New Challenges and Threats Ambassador Adel Adaileh during one of the thematic sessions of the Conference received good feedback. Ambassador Adel Adaileh emphasized the strong commitment of the CICA Member States to preventing and combating terrorism, which was reflected in the updated Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures of 2021. He also briefed the panel participants on some projects in this direction, implemented recently within the framework of CICA.
On the sidelines of the Conference, Executive Director Ambassador Kairat Sarybay held detailed negotiations with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan Sirojiddin Muhriddin, as well as with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Azizbek Madmarov and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Vepa Hajiev. Representatives of the Central Asian countries expressed their full support for further strengthening of CICA and transformation of the forum into a full-fledged international organization, as well as noted the key importance of the upcoming Sixth CICA Summit, to be held on 12-13 October 2022 in Nur-Sultan.
