Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, Mr. Mustafa Şentop,
Excellencies,
TürkPA heads of delegation and esteemed deputies of brotherly nations,
I am honored to be in this Democracy Complex decorated with the words of the great leader Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, "Sovereignty belongs to the nation unconditionally," and to take the floor representing CICA at the 12th General Assembly of TürkPA.
It is another source of excitement to be in the city of Anatolia, where I spent 8.5 years of my youth, in the period when the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye is foreseen to be celebrated.
I am sure that how the great Turkish Nation overcame all the difficulties of the 1999 Marmara Earthquake, which I personally witnessed, in the same way, heroically and with great national and international solidarity, it will overcome the disaster of the century that occurred in February.
I am honoured to represent today an Organization with 28 Member States covering 90 percent of the territory and population in Asia.
At the outset, I wish to highlight the important role of TURKPA in promoting inter-parliamentary cooperation and political dialogue among Turkic states, which are also members of CICA, and thereby contributing to broader pan-asian security.
For more than a decade, CICA and TURKPA have enjoyed strong and fruitful partnership, which began when TURKPA gained the status of CICA Observer Organization. Representatives of our organizations ensure regular mutual participation in events and meetings at various levels.
Thanks to high-level participation and active contribution of TURKPA Member States, the Sixth CICA Summit in Astana in October last year has adopted historic decisions at the year of CICA’s 30th anniversary.
The main decision of our heads of state and government was the launch of CICA’s transformation into a full-fledged regional international organization. The Summit has established the CICA Fund to facilitate CICA project activities, adopted the CICA action plan to implement the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the statement on cooperation in the area of security of and in the use of ICTs, and other important decisions.
Moreover, the Presidents Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan, in their statements at the Sixth Summit called for a broad range of forward-looking actions and proposed innovative initiatives on the most important topics of the current global and regional agenda.
In particular, Kazakhstan, as CICA Chair initiated establishment of a Council on Sustainable Connectivity, institutionalization of the Financial Summit, and a High-level Environmental Conference in 2024.
Azerbaijan highlighted the importance of connectivity, transport corridors and security issues. Strengthening connectivity is a broadly shared priority issue for all CICA Member States.
Kyrgyzstan emphasized the importance of regional cooperation in Asia on development of infrastructure, assistance to Afghanistan and strengthening inter-civilizational dialogue, and called for support of its bid for non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council in 2027-2028.
Türkiye stressed the importance of developing multimodal transport corridors, including on the Silk Road and other East-West routes, strengthening energy security, sustainable and diverse energy supply, promoting global cooperation to address climate change, natural disasters and desertification, and to protect environment and biodiversity.
Uzbekistan proposed to form a high-level negotiation group on Afghanistan under the UN, create a new format for inter-generational dialogue, launch expert work under the “Green Asia” concept.
The central message in each address was a call for cooperation for stability and peace not only in Asia but worldwide. I am sure that all this is relevant for and is echoed within TURKPA.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank TURKPA for the initiative and excellent presentation on the contribution of the Parliamentary Group of Young Parliamentarians to the development of youth policy in Turkic-speaking states on the sidelines of the Fifth Meeting of the CICA Youth Council in Astana in 2022. We hope for further cooperation.
President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has put forward an initiative to hold a rally of volunteer movement leaders of CICA Member States in Astana in 2024 under the auspices of the Youth Council, and the experience of TURKPA would undoubtedly be useful in this endeavour.
The agenda of today's TURKPA event related to parliamentary diplomacy in energy, migration, and food is consistent with that of CICA and its bodies.
For instance, within the CICA economic dimension, interaction is implemented in various priority areas: energy security, tourism, agriculture etc.
The agenda of the upcoming plenary session of the CICA Business Council and Business Forum scheduled for early October 2023 in Almaty covers renewable energy, food security and green finance.
A Partnership Network of Leading Universities of the CICA Member States, proposed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the Sixth CICA Summit, would facilitate exchange of developments in innovative areas, such as renewable energy sources, IT and nanotechnology. Taking into account the high labour mobility of the Asian population and the absence of a unified qualification system on the continent, the urgency and necessity of discussing labour migration and harmonization of the national qualification systems in Asia are increasing.
Moreover, the CICA Plan of Confidence Building Measures for 2023 includes a specialized meeting to be held by the CICA Secretariat with the support of the Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Kazakhstan; as well as a webinar and a seminar on food security (organized by Israel and Bangladesh, respectively).
Dear participants of the Plenary Session,
CICA has proved to be an effective political and diplomatic forum with the most extensive geographical coverage in the Asian region, continuing its evolutionary path.
In conclusion, let me wish you success in today's Session and express hope for further active cooperation between CICA and TURKPA!
Thank you for your attention!
