Statements and Remarks of CICA Secretary General Ambassador Kairat Sarybay

  • Home Statements and Remarks of CICA Secretary General Ambassador Kairat Sarybay

Statement by CICA Secretary General Ambassador Kairat Sarybay at the Amman Security Colloquium, 2 November 2022


Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

In the first words of my speech, I would like to thank the organizers of the colloquium for the invitation, for the opportunity to address such a representative audience, and also for the excellent organization of this event.

It is both an honor and a challenge for me to take part in the discussion of acute, burning issues of security and cooperation in such an important region as Asia, which every year is gaining more and more weight and importance in the processes of global development. Most of the world’s political and economic changes are taking place in Asia, indicating that the Asian continent has a new decisive role to play. Asia is rightly regarded as one of the main drivers of global development in the 21st century, as the importance and role of the continent will be growing.

Thus, Asia, as the largest region in the world with the potential to be a driving force of global progress, will inevitably become an independent strong commonwealth of nations, free from its old remnants, pursuing common goals, independently solving its internal problems and contributing to global peace and security.

As many of my counterparts believe it is high time Asia decides its own path and future. However, Asian region is still facing different nature of challenges.

Today, multilateralism and inclusiveness have become the only possible way to ensuring regional and global peace, security and stability. The days of unilateralism and mentoring in international relations are over, the world cannot be made safer without the participation of all global and regional actors.

CICA, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, has come a long way from a concept to an effective Forum for implementation of confidence building measures and cooperation towards a common and indivisible security area and close cooperation in Asia. Currently CICA serves as a relevant platform for interaction among Asian states on a wide range of issues.

The principles and approaches of CICA make this platform unique for Asia, a very diverse continent, since CICA works to promote cooperation among states in order to create a favourable atmosphere of confidence, which is the main prerequisite for establishing full-fledged interaction. Furthermore, close and mutually beneficial cooperation ensures a high level of security, which is a prerequisite for sustainable development.

CICA's working approach is to proceed from the simple to the complex, from building confidence to building bridges. These principles and approaches have allowed CICA to bring 28 countries together, including countries with different views.

Today CICA area stretches from the Pacific to the Mediterranean, from the Polar Sea to the Indian Ocean, covering 90% of the territory of Asia and make up half of the world’s population. CICA region vary widely in their historical and cultural backgrounds, but crucially share a common goal of peace and cooperation.

Predominantly created to building confidence and trust across the Asian continent, today CICA has evolved into a mature multilateral structure aimed at ensuring peace, security and stability in the region. All CICA Member States continue to reaffirm their willingness to reinforce the CICA process in light of the current geopolitical context.

Now CICA has reached a level where the need to transform the dialogue platform into a full-fledged international organization is becoming increasingly tangible. The goal of CICA transformation is, first of all, to strengthen the global role of Asia, and, secondly, to shift to a new level of cooperation between the CICA Member States.

The readiness of CICA for transformation is obvious and is conditioned, firstly, by the maturity and effectiveness of the Forum as a regional structure for political dialogue, and, secondly, by its de facto functioning as a full-fledged organization.

Having sounded ten years ago as an idea, this year the transformation into a full-fledged international organization has acquired its real form. At the Sixth CICA Summit in Astana on October 12-13, 2022, the heads of the CICA Member States adopted the Astana Statement on CICA Transformation, which gave an official start to this process. I want to emphasize that we are not creating a new organization, but are moving to a new stage of institutional development.

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

The most important fundamental document of CICA, the Almaty Act, was adopted at the First CICA Meeting of the Heads of State and Government (Summit) in 2002, which also serves as its Charter.

One of CICA’s comparative advantages is its comprehensive approach to security and development issues, which consists of five broad dimensions of interaction: military-political, new challenges and threats, economic, environmental, and human.

CICA has a unique document for the Asian history of multilateral diplomacy – CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) with approved dimensions of interaction among the Member States. In 2021, the Ministerial Meeting updated the Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures. Now it includes such new priority areas of cooperation as epidemiological safety, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and security of information and communication technologies.

Military-Political dimension is one of the five main areas of cooperation within CICA. Although the Member States did not yet approve comprehensive cooperation and confidence building measures in this particular domain, CICA Member States definitely have to deal with problems related to security, conflict prevention, de-escalation, settlement or arms control and others, individually, bilaterally or sub-regionally. To do it within the CICA will require certain number of steps before achieving the consensus among Member States.

Issues of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation also always remain in the focus of CICA and its Member States. In one of the fundamental documents of the Conference - the Almaty Act of June 4, 2002 - a number of paragraphs, from the eleventh to the thirteenth, are devoted entirely to these issues. In particular, in the thirteenth paragraph, the Member States speak of the need to encourage the establishment of zones free of nuclear weapons and other types of WMD in Asia, including in the Middle East, on the basis of agreements reached voluntarily among the states of the region. This provision remains in force and no participating country has ever proposed to revise it.

I would like to emphasize the role of the basic principles of CICA, such as strict consensus and voluntary implementation of the decisions taken. It is these principles that distinguish CICA from a number of other organizations operating in the region that create a unique atmosphere allowing states that sometimes do not have not only diplomatic relations with each other, but even mutual diplomatic recognition, to sit at the same table and discuss the most acute and important problems of regional security.

It is strict adherence to the principles I have indicated that makes it possible to continue the dialogue, in particular, on the Middle East settlement, even when this dialogue becomes difficult to implement in other multilateral formats.

Another important approach that has developed over the years of interaction on the CICA platform is focusing on what unites rather than divides, the search for areas of mutual interest where contradictions are often of a fundamental and, dare I say, old-fashioned nature.

A good example here is the other dimension of security, which we call new challenges and threats, where cooperation is truly shared. One of the most important recent achievements, I believe, is the adoption by the Sixth CICA Summit in Astana on October 13 this year of the CICA Plan of Action on the Implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. It has become a historic step and is aimed at implementing this Strategy on a voluntary basis in the CICA region.

The Summit also approved the CICA Leaders’ Statement on Cooperation in the Field of Security of and in the Use of Information and Communication Technologies. It was designed to give political impetus to the practical cooperation in the new priority area that is a clear confirmation of intentions of the CICA Member States to keep up with the times and respond in a timely manner to the new challenges of modernity. Of course, both of these documents were agreed upon and adopted on the basis of consensus of all CICA Member States.

Thus, the CICA Member States aspire as their ultimate goal to create an architecture of security and cooperation in Asia based on the principles of international law, transparency and mutual confidence, making decisions and operating exclusively on the basis of consensus, building trust and ensuring it through dialogue and multilateralism, demonstrating the their commitment to the UN Charter.

We serve for you! And we look forward to your continued support.

Thank you for your kind attention.

FOR CICA MEMBER STATES

Login

Password