CICA Process - 15 years of success

China Daily | Updated: 2007-10-15 07:17

The Second CICA Summit held in Almaty on June 17, 2006, is attended by the presidents of Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, the Prime Minister of Thailand, and high-ranking representatives from Turkey, Israel, Mongolia, South Korea, India, Iran, Palestine, and Egypt. The summit also hosted representatives of all CICA Observer States and international organizations.

On October 5, 2007 the world community celebrated the 15th anniversary of the initiative for convening the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA), put forward by the President of Kazakhstan H.E. Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev during the 47th session of the UN General Assembly in 1992.

The main idea of the initiative is to create an effective and universal structure for dialogue on security issues in Asia. CICA, with 18 member countries, has already become a real force in contemporary international relations. For instance, in 2002, when relations between the new nuclear powers - India and Pakistan - were strained, the participation of their leaders in the First CICA Summit in Almaty contributed to relieve the tension in South Asia.

During 1993-98, a number of events were arranged for the purpose of elaborating the conceptual grounds for the CICA process. The main achievement of that period was reaching consensus on elaborating common approaches to the problems of security and cooperation among the countries of the Asian region.