Statement of the Executive Director of CICA Secretariat, Ambassador Kairat Sarybay at the International Conference «Nursultan Nazarbayev: A Politician of Global Scale» November 30, 2020, Nur-Sultan.

Statement of the Executive Director of CICA Secretariat
Ambassador Kairat Sarybay at the International Conference
«Nursultan Nazarbayev: A Politician of Global Scale»
November 30, 2020, Nur-Sultan

Dear Maulen Sagatkhanuly,

Dear Kyrymbek Eleuly,

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Your Excellencies,

I would like to extend my gratitude to Conference organizers for invitation to deliver a statement at this highly representative forum held on the occasion of the Day of First President of Republic of Kazakhstan. The topic of today’s conference is very relevant and extensive, as evidenced by the quality of speakers – from heads of state and government to chiefs of several international organizations. In this regard, it gives me emmence pleasure to dedicate my speech to the initiative of the First President of Kazakhstan – Elbasy Nursultan Nazarbayev to convene the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, the 30^th anniversary of which we will celebrate in 2022.  

This initiative of Elbasy laid foundation for the Pan-Asian dialogue platform on architecture of regional security, designed to be open, transparent, inclusive, evolutionary and founded on universally recognized principles of international law; and it creates conditions for all states and people to coexist peacefully in peace, freedom and prosperity.

The CICA membership has risen from 15 founding members to 27; and the total territory of Member States covers nearly 90% of the Asian continent, where more than half of the world’s population lives. The CICA Member States account for over 50% of the world GDP and generate two-thirds of global economic growth.

Since the First CICA Summit in Almaty in 2002, 5 meetings have been regularly held at the level of the Heads of state and government. The work of each meeting culminated in the adoption of the Declarations, reflecting the vision of the Summit participants on the essential aspects of contemporary international relations. High efficiency of the summits held demonstrates the significant capacity of CICA in building common, comprehensive, cooperative, sustainable, indivisible and equal security for all in Asia.

During the Chairmanship periods of Kazakhstan, Turkey, China and Tajikistan in CICA, the tremendous work has been performed on the implementation of Confidence Building Measures in Economic, Ecological, Humanitarian and Military-Political dimensions as well as in the dimension of the New Threats and Challenges.

The CICA Secretariat has been functioning since 2006. The diplomats of Kazakhstan, China, Russia, India, Turkey, Iran and Tajikistan at various times were seconded to the Secretariat. In 2018, the Secretariat was completely relocated to Nur-Sultan.

The meetings of Business Forum and Business Council, Non-governmental Forum and Youth Council, Think Tank Forum of CICA are established and running regularly. 

Thus, as a result of consistent evolutionary development, the CICA has acquired essential features of a full-fledged organization.

Looking back at the significant development from the initiative to the present state of the Conference, let me note a number of  some important points, in my opinion, that clearly distinguish Elbasy, the Founder of CICA, as recorded in the Declaration of the Dushanbe Summit in 2019.

1. Gift of political foresight of Elbasy. Back in early 80-90s of the last century, Nursultan Nazarbayev not only foresaw a serious shift in the system of international relations from bipolar and monopolar world order to polycentricity, where the role of Asia in the process of global development was significantly increasing, but also initiated several international initiatives, and among was the convening of CICA. I have had to witness numerous negotiations of the First President of Kazakhstan with world leaders, where they discussed a need for balanced and, consequently, more democratic world order.

 

2. The vision of Elbasy on foreign policy is founded on his deep conviction and firm commitment to the principles of international law with the UN Charter and its key provisions at its core. Nursultan Nazarbayev, being a committed supporter of multilateral approaches in ensuring peace, security and stability, has always advocated for the diplomatic settlement of disputes, international coordination in combating terrorism and other new threats and challenges, enhanced trade and economic cooperation for the sake of prosperity and well-being of the nations, and need for well-coordinated international interaction in addressing environmental problems.  

 

3. The next important feature of Nursultan Nazarbayev is his Several initiatives of Elbasy and his specific actions based on his strong commitment to multilateralism significantly contributed to the theory and practice of diplomacy on the role of medium-sized countries in addressing global challenges of international relations. First of all, this is a consistent policy of Nursultan Nazarbayev towards total elimination of nuclear weapons, integration initiatives at the regional, continental and global levels, and successful mediation in the settlement of civil and interstate conflicts. Unfortunately, it is not possible to illustrate this point in detail in the framework of this Conference since an attempt to list accomplishments of Elbasy in the field of international mediation would require separate symposiums.

 

4. Another equally important feature is innovativeness. His appeal and policy of introducing innovations in science and technology, socio-economic and political progress are well known, but it is also obvious that Nursultan Nazarbayev brought several innovations to the foreign policy too. Any innovation is an attempt to introduce new approaches in solving urgent tasks, but not through destroying or total rejection of old, but rather a consistent implementation of new ideas on the basis of deep understanding and analysis of existing experience. Development and adoption of the CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures at the Second Ministerial meeting in Almaty in 2004 is an examples of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s innovation in global diplomacy. This particular document on Confidence Building Measures in five dimensions became the first breakthrough tool in the history of international relations in Asia in realization of Forum's main goal.

 

Dear participants of the Conference,

Consistency and predictability, and the same time bold innovative approaches based on rigorous analysis of the historical and relevant experience, and the gift of political foresight, in my opinion, became the main components of the deep trust in Elbasy from political leaders and statesmen as well as the nations and international organization they represent. This trust has grown into an international recognition of Nursultan Nazarbayev as a global politician. The international summit meetings at the high level, already mentioned by the distinguished speakers of our Conference, at the hospitable soil of the Great Steppe Country – Kazakhstan (Summits of CIS and EEC, CICA and OSCE, SCO and OIC, Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional religions, Almaty meetings on Iran's nuclear programme, Astana process for Syrian settlement and much more) or other international formats with the participation of the First President of Kazakhstan (Chairmanship in UN Security Council, Summits on nuclear security, Minsk process for settlement of the crisis in and around Ukraine, etc.) are a clear confirmation and endorsement of the topic of our meeting today, on the eve of remarkable occasion not only for Kazakhstan, but also for the international community. In my opinion, the initiative of the establishment of the Council of Eminent Persons within the CICA with the central role of Nursultan Nazarbayev as the Founder of the Forum, which was put forward by the President of Kazakhstan, Mr. Kasym-Jomart Tokayev, at the Fifth CICA Summit in Dushanbe last year, will also find a proper assessment of the Conference’s Member States.  

In conclusion, I would like to express my gratitude again to the Conference organizers and participants for an opportunity to share my views, with an example of the evolution from initiative to establishment of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, on the role of Elbasy, First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan His Excellency Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev in the global system of multilateral diplomacy and the development of multilateral approaches to the modern challenges of the international security.    

I would like to take this opportunity to commend you and vast online audience for the attention and wish everyone a pleasant holiday on the occasion of the Day of First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan!

Thank you for your attention! Happy holiday!