Distinguished Chair,
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of the CICA Secretary General Ambassador Kairat Sarybay I would like to warmly welcome participants of this workshop. I extend my gratitude to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of Bangladesh as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh for organizing this event.
The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia is a unique consensus-based multilateral platform for enhancing cooperation towardspromoting peace, security and stability in Asia. Today CICA brings together 28 Member States covering 90% of the territory of Asia and with half of the world’s population.
As a forum for political dialogue and practical co-operation, CICA offers an equal opportunity for all its Members with diversepolitical, economic, social and cultural backgrounds to exchange ideas, knowledge and best practices, collaborate on beneficial initiatives and take decisions based on mutual agreement.
Through facilitating voluntary implementation of specific and result-oriented confidence building measures - CBMs, CICA contributes to building trust, strengthening peace and security, and fostering economic growth and sustainable development. The scope of CICA CBMs comprehensively covers five dimensions of cooperation – military-political, new threats and challenges, economic, environmental and human dimensions.
The priority areas of CICA's environmental dimension are sustainable development, environment protection and natural disaster management.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The CICA region faces a variety of climatic phenomena, such as floods, cyclones, desertification, water scarcity, air pollution, earthquakes, heat waves, and other challenges. The years 2022 and 2023have shown how vulnerable is Asia to environmental disasters.
Climate migration and food insecurity problems have come up as consequence of all such extreme disasters, the scale of which is growing from year to year. These prove that environmentally sustainable development in Asia is needed more than ever.
The climate change, which is the main trigger of most of natural disasters, destruction of ecosystems and detriment to biodiversity, is a complex, multifaceted and systemic phenomena caused by the humankind’s excessive demand for and overconsumption of the regenerative capacity of the biosphere.
It was therefore well recognized by all States of the world that multilateral approach, supported by actions at the global, regional and national levels is the only way to address this threat which is equally dangerous and destructive for all. CICA, with its comprehensive approach to security, including its economic, environmental and humanitarian aspects, and as a biggest forum for pan-Asian dialogue, is well-placed to facilitate such common actions.
In order to combat, prevent and mitigate all these challenges, CICA Member States not only continuously raise environment related issues at their high-level political dialogue, but also hold different practical events on green transformation, regional environmental problems, circular economy, sustainable development and disaster risk reduction.
This workshop is one of them, and I once again thank the hosts and participants of this event and express confidence that it will be a success.
Ladies and gentlemen,
At the Sixth CICA Summit in October 2022, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proposed holding a High-Level Environmental Conference in Astana in 2024 to identify most urgent environmental issues common for all CICA Member States, share best practices in addressing them and achieve consensus on future actions. This initiative is intended to boost practical cooperation among Asian states and would therefore contribute to global environmental sustainability.
Among the expected outcomes of the conference is the establishment of a permanent CICA council for cooperation in the field of environment. This council would facilitate multilateral dialogue and joint actions of CICA Member States. CICA would thereby continuously contribute to the achievement of common sustainable development goals and would ensure synergy of action of its Member States in the green transformation process.
On the path to this major CICA conference, which is expected to be held at the ministerial level, a series of expert meetings will be convened by the current Kazakh Chairmanship of CICA with the participation of all 28 Member States.
As a preparatory step to this process, online consultations between Member States acting as coordinators and co-coordinators of the three priority areas in the CICA environmental dimension will take place in early August 2023 to discuss the concept paper of the CICA Ministerial Conference on Environmental Issues.
Ladies and gentlemen,
CICA perfectly fits to promoting connectivity across the Asian continent, including strengthening economic, social, environmental and other links between Member States in line with the sustainable development goals, which are of great importance for countries to secure their future. Therefore, for the environmental sustainability of the region and the management of natural disasters, it is inevitable for all stakeholders to act jointly,both regionally and sub-regionally.
In that context, the initiative to establish a CICA council on sustainable connectivityhas been put forward by Kazakhstan at the Sixth CICA Summit. This is another priority of the CICA Chairmanship, the concept of which will be discussed with all Member States in the near future. This initiative would contribute to strengthening the transit-transport potential of CICA Member States and developing diversified routes and environmentally friendly means of communication and cargo delivery across Asia.
Ladies and gentlemen,
CICA and its Member States also promote practical actions, such as planting trees, to contribute to greening the planet, preserving the global ecosystem, protectingthe environment from pollution and addressing the climate change.
To that end, in April 2023, the CICA Member States supported the proposal of the Kazakh Chairmanship to plant the CICA Alley in the capitals of all CICA Member States.
With this initiative, the CICA Member States would not only popularize but also make a tangible contribution to supporting a green and healthy planet. The CICA Secretariat has already established the tradition of planting trees annually at the CICA Alley at the Presidential Park of Astana.
Thank you very much for your attention and I wish a productive work to the participants of this event.
