Dear colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very happy to be in Ulaanbaatar today to meet my fellow counterparts. Today I already held fruitful consultations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and we discussed in details where is CICA today and what we can expect in the near future.
Mongolia has been a member of CICA for quite a long time since 2001, is a Coordinator in the priority area “Environment protection” in the environmental dimension and has held a number of environmental events. Mongolia held the first meeting of experts on combating desertification in Asia on 6-7 September 2011 in Ulaanbaatar.
At the initiative of the Government of Mongolia, two meetings of CICA experts focused on the issues of reforestation and combating desertification in Asia were held on 17-18 October 2016 in Ulaanbaatar.
Mongolia actively participates in the CICA governing bodies, in particular in the CICA Summit at the level of Head of State, Ministerial Meetings at the ministerial level. We appreciate Mongolia’s participation in CICA Advisory bodies, it has representatives in the CICA Youth Council. The country is actively involved in cultural connectivity, it has contributed to the Collection of Fairy Tales of Asian nations and the CICA Tourist Guidebook, which is planned to be published for the 30th anniversary of CICA.
I would like brief you as well and make a presentation about «What is CICA today», its goals and future plans and share my vision on CICA’s potential role in the New Asia. And I am looking forward to having an engaging Q&A session with all of you just after the presentation.
Your Excellencies,
CICA, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, has come a long way from a concept to an effective Forum for implementation of confidence building measures and cooperation towards a common and indivisible security area in Asia.
Predominantly created to building confidence and trust across the Asian continent today CICA has evolved into a mature multilateral structure aimed at ensuring peace, security and stability in the region.
Asia is rightly regarded as one of the main drivers of global development in the 21st century, as the importance and role of the continent will be growing. As many of my counterparts believe it is high time Asia decides its own path and future. However, Asian region is still facing different nature of challenges.
And resolution of these threats and challenges depend on the willingness to expand regional and international cooperation through development of common approaches of the Member States.
Therefore, let me further talk about the success story behind the CICA and why it is so important and relevant today for Asia.
What is CICA today?
Today CICA brings together 27 countries from the Pacific to the Mediterranean, from the Ural to the Indian Ocean, which cover 90% of the territory of Asia and make up half of the world’s population. CICA region vary widely in their historical and cultural backgrounds, but crucially share a common goal of peace and cooperation. It is for this reason that our Forum makes decisions and operates exclusively on the basis of consensus, to build trust and ensure that through dialogue and multilateralism we uphold CICA Member States’ commitment to the UN Charter.
CICA observer status has been granted to nine states and a number of international organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the League of Arab States; partnership agreements were concluded with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Economic Cooperation Organization, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan.
A few countries has already expressed their willingness to join CICA as full members.
The most important fundamental document of CICA, the Almaty Act, was adopted at the First CICA Meeting of the Heads of State and Government (Summit) in 2002, which also serves as its Charter.
One of CICA’s comparative advantages is its comprehensive approach to security and development issues, which consists of five broad dimensions of interaction: military-political, new challenges and threats, economic, environmental, and human.
CICA has a unique document for the Asian history of multilateral diplomacy – CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) with approved dimensions of interaction among the Member States.
Since its inception, CICA has held five Summits and six Ministerial Meetings, demonstrating active political support for the Conference’s process. CICA has been consecutively chaired by Kazakhstan (2002-2010), Turkey (2010-2014), China (2014-2018) and Tajikistan (2018-2020). The CICA institutes – the Youth Council and the Business Council – are working effectively. Recently two new advisory bodies were established during the Sixth CICA Ministerial meeting: Council of Eminent Persons and Think Thank Forum. The Business Forum and the Non-Governmental Forum hold their meetings on a regular basis.
First year of the Kazakhstan Chairmanship
10 years after its previous term, the Republic of Kazakhstan was agreed to the position of CICA Chairman in October 2020. As the founding Member State of CICA, Kazakhstan has set forth a set of forward-thinking priorities for its Chairmanship, including the transformation into the full-fledged international organization as a strategic goal.
I am very pleased to note that in the first year of the Kazakh Chairmanship, the family of observers was replenished with a new member - the application of Turkmenistan was unanimously approved by all 27 CICA Member States.
Member States were able to organize and share their expertise and best practices along the five dimensions of cooperation in the first year of Kazakh Chairmanship. All together in 2021 around 50 events of the CICA Plan on Implementation of CBMs on ecological issues, tourism recovery methods, smart agronomy, digital economy, food security, development of transport corridors, poverty alleviation, cybersecurity, financial technologies and others. Around 40 activities are planned for 2022 and already under implementation. The main political event to culminate the jubilee year will be the 6th CICA Summit in October in Nur-Sultan.
The Government of Kazakhstan has provided the Secretariat with the new spacious premise in the modern building of the EXPO site last year. This new premise allows us to increase the Secretariat’s international staff capacity in order to ensure a fair and balanced representation of all CICA regions at the CICA headquarters. At the moment diplomats from the People’s Republic of China, Jordan, India, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation are present at the Secretariat.
Today, CICA has reached a level where the need to transform the dialogue platform into a full-fledged international organization is becoming increasingly tangible. The goal of CICA transformation is, first of all, to strengthen the global role of Asia, and, secondly, to shift to a new level of cooperation between 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 de facto functioning as a full-fledged organization. It is important to start the transformation process by recognizing this fact, calling a spade a spade, and move forward. And that is the driving idea for the upcoming Summit in October.
We had already achieved some tangible results under Kazakhstan Chairmanship with continuous support from Member States as was evident during the Sixth Ministerial Meeting in October last year.
Outcomes of the Sixth CICA Ministerial Meeting
The Sixth Ministerial Meeting held in Nur-Sultan on 12 October 2021 was attended by 23 of the 27 States at the level of ministers or their deputies, which has once again demonstrated an increasing importance of CICA.
Following the Ministerial Meeting a number of important documents were adopted:
- Updated CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures. The Catalogue adapted to modern realities includes such new priority areas of cooperation as epidemiological safety, public health and pharmaceuticals, security of and in the use of information and communication technologies. Moreover, due priority has been attached to connectivity within economic dimension and gender issues;
- Regulations on the CICA Council of Eminent Persons. The Council of Eminent Persons is an advisory body consisting of former heads of state, prominent public personas, accomplished and leading figures in their fields, who will provide Member States with valuable advisory recommendations thanks to their decades of experience and leadership;
-Regulation on the CICA Think Tank Forum. Think Tank Forum is intended to bring together analytical centers and think tanks from across Asia to establish exchange of expertise and sharing of insights, as well as facilitate joint multilateral research projects.
On 28-29 December 2021 TTF held its 9th meeting, the first as a permanent advisory body of CICA. During the meeting, leading experts of the analytical centers of the CICA countries noted the need for further institutionalize CICA and gradually transform it into an organization. Participants also engaged into a profound exchange of ideas and expertise on current regional issues.
It is my understanding that Mongolia has not yet decided on nominating a relevant institution to the TTF. I hope this could be done soon, so the 10th, and 11th, TTF Meeting could be even more inclusive and fruitful.
In conclusion, you can see what are our major plans for 2022. We set ourselves some serious goals and, with support of our Member States, looks forward to working closely together to achieve concrete practical results for the benefit of Asia. I am confident that Mongolia will be a indispensable part of this process.
Thank you for your attention.
