The growing needs of Western countries for energy resources in the Middle East and the Caspian Sea require a broad consensus between parties for lasting stability and peace. This new consensus, which should not discard or set aside the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, should be in favor of the interests of both Asia as well as the West.
In an attempt to maintain a comprehensive system of peace and security, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was set up at the initiative of Kazakhstan. CICA, with 20 member countries and 10 observer countries and institutions, has the potential to prepare the groundwork for a system of stability. Kazakhstan will remain in the presidency of the organization until the end of 2010, when it will take over the presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the mastermind of CICA, first announced his plan for such an organization at the 47th plenary session of the UN General Assembly in 1992.
The third summit of CICA was held with the participation of foreign ministers in the former Kazakh capital or Almaty on Aug. 25, 2008. Delegates from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Thailand and Turkey attended the summit. Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar joined the CICA meeting as observer countries. In his speech at the meeting Nazarbayev noted that global terrorism, religious extremism, organized crime, drug trafficking and illegal migration should be addressed using all the means of collective diplomacy. The final declaration of the summit affirms the need for a common approach to create a multi-polar global system where the UN will serve as the major player. Countries endorsing the declaration also underline that states should not take action for the sake of their own security if it undermines the security of others. In addition, CICA member states also paid special attention to combating terrorism and drug trafficking originating in Afghanistan and enforcing confidence-building measures previously agreed upon between the member states.
The second summit of CICA, with the participation of heads of state, was held in the same city on Oct. 22, 2005. It was agreed at the summit that confidence-building measures would be implemented in the political, economic, ecological and humanitarian areas. With the adoption of a paper in Bangkok on a collective approach to implement confidence-building measures in 2007, concrete steps were taken to ensure rapprochement between member states and implementation of the agreed confidence-building measures. The collective approach paper includes detailed mechanisms to achieve this. Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, South Korea, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Turkey served as coordinators and co-coordinators to develop secure measures for better living standards, addressing new challenges and threats, creating safer and effective transport corridors, combating illegal drug trafficking and developing policies with regard to information technologies, energy security and small and mid-sized enterprises. CICA is planning to hold its third summit for heads of state in summer 2010.
The Kazakh presidency of CICA started in 2002 and will last through to 2010. As indicated by the Kazakh president, it is time to select the country for the presidency for the next term. In Nazarbayev's opinion, Turkey, one of the most active CICA members, is the ideal candidate for presidency, and Kazakhstan has forwarded its official proposal to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Turkey's cooperation with Kazakhstan in CICA, an influential body in Eurasia, will contribute a great deal to the maintenance of regional security and stability. Even though EU membership is important for Turkey, it is also a Eurasian country. Turkey needs to pursue a proactive policy not only Europe and the Middle East but also in Eurasia.
