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Turkey holds a seminar on the fight against smuggling at the new headquarters of the CICA Secretariat




The official opening ceremony of CICA Seminar on “Risk Analysis and Search Techniques in the fight against smuggling of contraband” was held on 20 December 2021 in Nur-Sultan. This is the first seminar organized by the Turkish International Academy against Drugs and Organized Crime (TADOC) at the CICA Secretariat’s headquarters. The seminar will be held from 20-24 December 2021 with the focus to enhance the capacity of law enforcement officers, and deepen cooperation in combating smuggling of contraband by implementing the best international practices.

CICA Executive Director Kairat Sarybay, in his welcoming remarks,  noted that smuggling of contraband seriously undermines economies and social welfare of all countries, and that the seminar is of a critical importance in consolidating international experiences and joint efforts to address this challenge. In addition, the Executive Director expressed gratitude to the Republic of Turkey, Coordinator of Confidence Building Measures in the propriety area of “New Challenges and Threats” that annually holds events and activities aimed at raising the professional skills of the law enforcement officers and shares its best national practices with the CICA partners.

In his welcoming remarks, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Turkey to the Republic of Kazakhstan Ufuk Ekici noted that it was the first event organized at the CICA Secretariat’s headquarters. The Turkish side chaired CICA from 2010-2014 and keeps significantly contributing to the implementation of confidence building measures in its capacity as Coordinator of the priority area “New Challenges and Threats” and Co-coordinator in Military-Political dimension. “Today’s seminar on “Risk analysis and search techniques” will add another brick to our long lasting cooperation with CICA and its Member States. We believe that such regular events conducted within the framework of “Plan of Confidence Building Measures” contribute to sense of cooperation and collective security in the Asian continent”, concluded Ambassador Ufuk Ekici.

It should be noted that this is the third event organized by the Turkish side for the CICA Member States on the above theme in 2021. Other events held this year include: “Basic Training for Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime” (Ankara, 29 November – 3 December) and the Seminar on “Exchange of information on scanning systems and technical equipment used by customs services to ensure security" (an online event held on 15 December) were held on the CICA platform.

During the training, the law enforcement officers will learn how to apply an integrated approach to implement professional and systematic search techniques; to identify methods of withholding and concealment of evidence, to read and interpret the “body language” of potential smugglers in order to prevent the smuggling of contraband; to plan and manage the anti-smuggling efforts, to take strategic decisions during the process of managing the work of police officers involved in anti-smuggling operations.

The seminar was attended by the law enforcement officers from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, the Russian Federation and Thailand.

CICA is an effective international forum for building cooperation aimed at ensuring peace, security and stability in Asia. Today, the Forum brings together 27 Member States. There are nine observing countries and five observing international organizations of CICA.  The CICA Secretariat is located in Nur-Sultan.

The official inauguration ceremony of the CICA new headquarters was held on 12 October 2021 in Nur-Sultan as part of the Sixth CICA Ministerial Meeting. The opening ceremony was attended by Foreign Affairs Ministers, Heads of Diplomatic Missions of the CICA Member and Observer States, as well as Heads of international organizations. The new CICA headquarters is located in a modern building of EXPO of Kazakhstan’s capital and is in full compliance with safety and security requirements, as well as modern technological and innovative standards.


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