Distinguished Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen!
It is a great honour and pleasure for me to welcome the participants of the seminar on the military-political dimension traditionally held 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, as well as to the representatives of the 13 Member States for their active participation. Special thanks to those delegates who were able to travel from their capitals to participate in the seminar. This emphasizes the importance attached to cooperation within CICA and its military-political dimension.
This dimension is the first of the five core areas of cooperation under CICA. The main objective of the CICA Member States is to build an architecture of security and cooperation in Asia based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law, transparency and mutual trust, with decisions and actions based solely on consensus. Confidence building measures in the military-political area were at the core of the establishment of our Conference, which, over more than 30 years of development, has evolved into a mature multilateral structure for multidimensional cooperation that goes far beyond security and regional stability. However,the military-political dimension remains one of the key areas of our interaction.
The Member States have already developed ten specific confidence building measures in the military-political dimension, included in the CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures. This document, unique in international practice, reflects collective views and multilateral approaches based on mutual recognition that confidence building measures, implemented on a gradual and voluntary basis, are significant for strengthening security on the Asian continent.
Although the concept paper and the action plan on the military-political dimension have not yet been approved by the Member States, the existing problems related to security, conflict prevention, de-escalation, settlement or arms control require enhanced interaction on a multilateral basis. To carry out this activity within CICA, we need to go through a certain number of stages before consensus is reached among the Member States. I am sure that today's seminar will be another contribution to our common efforts in this direction.
The CICA Summit held in October last year created the conditions for a significant deepening of cooperation in all five dimensions, including military-political, by adopting the Astana Statement on CICA Transformation into a full-fledged international organization.
The goal of the CICA transformation is, firstly, to strengthen the global role of Asia and, secondly, to move to a new level of cooperation among 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 actual functioning as a full-fledged organization.
Distinguished delegates,
The CICA Member States strive as the ultimate goal 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; and the military-political dimension plays a key role in implementing this common aspiration of the CICA leaders.
We live in an era of constantly changing great risks and threats to global security. Asia, a home to 60 percent of the world's population, is the most challenging continent in this context. These risks have various root causes and manifestations, and we have no choice but to collectively solve all security problems through multilateral mechanisms.
I am firmly convinced that today's seminar will serve as a platform for the exchange of forward-looking views in order to further expand cooperation in this direction.
I once again express my sincere gratitude to the organizers of the seminars and wish them fruitful work.
Thank you for your attention!
Astana, 23 August 2023
