Политология/ 10. Региональные политические процессы

PhD докторант Г. Ергешқызы

Казахский Национальный университет им. аль-Фараби, Казахстан

Reguional secuirity issues in Central Asia and kazakhstan’s experience of CICA

Over the last twenty years the international community has been a witness to new and radical developments in Europe and Asia. The bibolar approach to international politics paved the way for greater cooperation among nations. The nature of issue confronting mankind was also global in dimension that necessitated a collective approach. Therefore this cooperative and collective tendencies are exist in Asia, which explains the shift in international politics from Europe to the Asian continent[1].

The importance of the Asian continent on the geopolitical space is determined by its enormous human and territorial recourses as well as sustainable economic growth. In this context Director of the India-Central Asia Foundation, professor Nirmala Joshi underlined several factors which help to explain the growing significance of Asia. Firstly, from the perspective of security Asia has been a steady rise in non-traditional threats and challenges. These are the rise of international terrorism, religious extremism, separatism and etc. Secondly, drug trafficking, organized crime are factors that sustain militancy in Eurasia. An outcome of this threat is creating socio-economic issues. Thirdly, spread of weapons of mass destruction as well as conventional weapons has added to the tensions. And the last one, Asia is likely emerge as the transport hub connecting East and West[2]. At the same time, most of military conflicts, existence of very poor and very rich countries as neighbors, territorial disputes, ethnic conflicts, biological threats of the last few decades have also concentrated in Asia. All these above-mentioned factors is growing understanding of the urgency to create a common security structure and readiness to demonstrate free will in the direction of gradual easing the tension and reaching agreements on the foremost priority areas. In this context for the last twenty years despite the changing international atmosphere, on October 5,1992 during the 47^th session of the UN General Assembly the President of Kazakhstan N. Nazarbayev took the initiative of proposing the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia[3]. The moving spirit behind this initiative was the aspiration to set up an efficient and acceptable structure for ensuring peace and security in Asia. Unlike other regions in the world, Asia did not have such a structure at that time and earlier attempts to create a suitable structure had not been very successful.

The CICA's main purpose is to promote peace, security and stability in the region by means of mutual cooperation. As CICA includes states that experience deep political problems in their relations (Pakistan and India, Iran and Israel), the organization avoids discussing certain political issues. The broadest conceptual framework for CICA should be one based on «cooperative security», essentially working together in «collective security» in the spirit of cooperation, the principles of which should be made applicable in different dimensions - bilateral, regional, and global. However, many international organizations that unite diverse states encounter with the same challenge. Bearing in mind that Asia is a very diverse continent with significant religious, political and economic differences, relative modest progress of CICA is natural.

From the very beginning the idea of convocation of CICA has found support of some the Asian states defining a political climate on continent, and the international organizations (the United Nations, OSCE, LAS). Following the results of the given meetings a Special Working Group was established to make preparation for the meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of the states interested in convening the Conference. CICA's process divided into several phases:

Preparatory process. During the first phase of the evolution of CICA from 1992 till 1994.

During this period Kazakhstan organized three meetings of the representatives of foreign ministries of Asian states interested in CICA. The first meeting with 12 participants was held in April 1993; the second meeting with 28 participants was held in August-September 1993; and the third meeting with 29 participants was held in October 1994. The main achievement of the first phase was an agreement that discords existing in region could not be an obstacle to finding common approaches to the problems concerning security and cooperation among the states[4].

During the second phase (1995-1999), a Special Working Group was established to make preparation for the meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of the states interested in convening the Conference. The first meeting of the SWG took place in March 1995. Participating states were represented at the level of Ambassadors, and experts from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs. In the various sessions of the SWG during 1995-1999 drafts of the basic CICA documents such as "The Rule of Procedures", "Declaration on the Principles", "CICA Structure and Institutes" were considered.

The international colloquium "Asian Security in the Context of Convening CICA", held in Almaty October 21-22, 1998, was an important moment in the development of CICA. The heads of leading scientific and research centers and institutions from 16 countries of Asia, Europe and the USA took part in the colloquium. The main goal of this event was to exchange opinions on all aspects of Asian security with an emphasis on pursuing the idea of creating a regional security system.

In January-February 1999, bilateral consultations were held in the capitals of some of the interested Member States. During these consultations, agreements were reached on the rapprochement of positions of the participants concerning several disputed provisions of the Declaration of Principles[5].

First Ministerial Meeting: The First Meeting of CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in Almaty on September 14, 1999.

The First Ministerial Meeting laid the foundation of CICA with the signing of the Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between CICA Member States by the Ministers. The Ministers, while reaffirming commitment to the United Nations Charter, agreed that the Member States will respect each other’s sovereign equality; refrain from the threat or use of force; respect the territorial integrity of each other; settle disputes in accordance with the Declaration, UN Charter and international law; refrain from any intervention in the internal affairs of each other; reaffirm their commitment to the goal of achieving general and complete disarmament under effective control; enhance the process of economic, social and cultural cooperation; and respect human rights and fundamental freedoms of all individuals[6].

First Summit: The First CICA Summit was held in Almaty on June 4, 2002 with participation of the Heads of Government of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan; and Special Envoys of the Heads of Government of Egypt, Iran, Israel and Palestine[7]. The Summit was also attended by the representatives of the Observer States and Organizations. At this meeting, the Almaty Act and CICA Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting Dialogue among Civilizations were adopted. The Within a short span of ten years after initiation of the idea, CICA became a full fledged functioning forum for dialogue and for seeking mutually acceptable measures for resolving problems and conflicts in the region.

Second Ministerial Meeting: The Second Meeting of CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in Almaty on October 22, 2004. At this meeting, CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs), CICA Rules of Procedure and Declaration of CICA Ministerial Meeting were adopted. Thailand was admitted as the seventeenth member of CICA

CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures became the most important document of the forum after Almaty Act. It was for the first time in the history of the Asian continent that there was such a comprehensive document envisaging multilateral cooperation among states on wide range of issues relating to stability and security. Within the framework of the Catalogue, the Confidence Building Measures were categorized into five basic dimensions, namely, economic; environmental; human; fight against new challenges and threats; and military-political. Under each category, specific measures for implementation were listed. The Member States agreed to implement the Confidence Building Measures on gradual and voluntary basis. It was also agreed that any Member State could select certain measures identified in the Catalogue for implementation, where feasible and appropriate.

Second Summit: The Second CICA Summit was held in Almaty on June 17, 2006 with participation of the Heads of Government of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Thailand and Uzbekistan and Special Envoys of the Heads of Government of Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Palestine and Turkey. Republic of Korea was admitted as the eighteenth member of CICA[8].

The Second Summit adopted the Statute of CICA Secretariat and Declaration of the Second CICA Summit. With the adoption of the Statute, CICA Secretariat was established with its seat in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Functions of the Secretariat specified in the Statute include: providing support for CICA meetings; maintenance of archive of CICA documents; acting as clearing house for the documents and information provided by the Member States; disseminating information on CICA; disseminating information on the implementation of CBMs among Member State; and performance of other tasks and duties assigned by the decision making bodies of CICA.

Development of the Confidence Building Measures. At the Senior Officials Committee meeting (SOC), held in 12-14 March 2007 in Bangkok, a document «Cooperative Approach for the implementation of the CICA CBMs» was adopted. Thus the beginning phase of practical implementation of the CICA Catalogue of confidence building measures and various projects aimed at strengthening cooperation in a multilateral format and specifying the individual directions of the CICA Catalogue [9].

Third Ministerial Meeting: The Third Meeting of CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in Almaty on August 25, 2008, was attended by delegations of 19 Member States, 7 observer countries and 6 international and regional organizations. Just prior to the Ministerial Meeting Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and United Arab Emirate were formally admitted to CICA taking the membership to twenty. The State of Qatar was conferred the status of observer.

The Conclusions and Declaration of the Ministerial Meeting, titled CICA Progress in Implementation of CBMs were adopted at the Meeting.

The Ministers also adopted the Protocol Amending the Statute of the Secretariat of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia which provides for shifting of CICA Secretariat from Almaty to Astana.

Further Development of the Confidence Building Measures. SOC Meeting on 20 February 2009 in New Delhi:Special working group (SWG) of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) held its regular meeting in New Delhi, India on 18-19 February 2009, followed by meeting of Senior Officials Committee (SOC) under the chairmanship of N.Yermekbayev, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan on 20 February 2009 [9, P.3].

One of main issues on the agenda was consideration of implementation of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs). Kazakhstan and Turkey briefed the Member States about the proposed course of action for implementation of action plans in the areas of human dimension and new challenges and threats. Other coordinating countries informed about the course of action for adoption of concept papers and action plans for implementation of CBMs in the areas of development of secure and effective systems of transport corridors; illicit drug trafficking; information technology; energy security; and small and medium enterprise.

It is known that the Kazakhstan’s mandate of the CICA Chairman expires in 2010. In this regard, at the Third Meeting of CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs on August 25, 2008 the President of Kazakhstan N.Nazarbayev proposed to elect for this post one of the most active participants of the CICA - Republic of Turkey.

In accordance with the CICA Rules of Procedure, the next 3rd Summit of Heads of States and Governments of the CICA Member States will be held in 2010 in Turkey.

The third CICA Summit was held in Istanbul on June 8, 2010[10]. The summit took place to welcome new members Iraq and Vietnam, who became a permanent member from its observer status.

Issues on Istanbul agenda included discussions over the meaning of Turkey's "no" vote at the UN Security Council on new round of sanctions against Iran, the war in Afghanistan and instability in Iraq, reset policy with Russia and others. The gathering of the leaders from about 40 countries across Eurasia and the Middle East was overshadowed due to the Gaza flotilla crisis.

Practical implementation of confidence building measures is the route for not only taking the CICA process forward but also for retaining the relevance of the process. Until recently, CICA approach towards CBMs had been mainly declaratory. However, declared intents need to be followed-up by real progress for them to remain meaningful. How and in which shape can this objective be realized depends on the collective will and mutual understanding of the member states.

The 4th meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the CICA was held in Astana. The participants of the event discuss the state and prospects of the CICA today. They will exchange opinions on such relevant issues as the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, Afghanistan, nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, fighting against transnational crime and priorities of the economic cooperation within the CICA [11]. As a host country to the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Kazakhstan intends to move the secretariat of the organisation from Almaty to Astana.

Presently the CICA became a real and stable factor of regional and global policy in the sphere of collective security. The CICA that embodies one of the most important principles of our policy — dialogue and interaction for peaceful resolution of conflicts and effective countering of challenges and threats in the Asian continent. Because all these issues are still relevant.

Thus, CICA can become such a structure in Asia within whose framework, joint activities can be concentrated on the widening the spheres of common interests among the countries with diverse foreign policy.

References

1. Gaddam Dharmendra. Asian Security and CICA // Пятнадцатилетний юбилей СВМДА: взгляд сквозь призму лет: Алматы, 17 қазан 2007 жыл. – Астана, 17 желтоқсан 2007 жыл. – 308б.

2. Nirmala Joshi. Asian Security and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia CICA// Пятнадцатилетний юбилей СВМДА: взгляд сквозь призму лет: Алматы, 17 қазан 2007 жыл. – Астана, 17 желтоқсан 2007 жыл. – 308б.

3. Kazakhstan: Week by Week // News Bulletin Released by the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the State of Israel No 12. – June 20, 2005.

4. CICA Istanbul summit marks new age in Asian Security dialog // http://www.s-cica.org/index.html

5. Secretariat of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia //Official site of CICA’s Secretariat //http://www.s-cica.kz/page.php?page_id=65&lang=2

6. First Ministerial Meeting // Official site of CICA’s Secretariat // http://www.s-cica.org/page.php?page_id=406&lang=1

7. OSCE-CICA Forum can become a permanent dialogue platform // http://www.cicaistanbul.org/pages/about_cica_page.html

8. Second Summit of CICA // Official site of CICA’s Secretariat // http://www.s-cica.org/page.php?page_id=397&lang=1

9. Ozdal Habibe. "The Fifth International Asian Congress Was Held in Istanbul". Turkish Weekly. - 9 June 2010.

10. The Third CICA Summit// Official site of CICA’s Secretariat //http://www.s-cica.org/page.php?page_id=138&lang=1

11. CICA became stable factor of regional policy in security // http://eurodialogue.org/CICA-became-stable-factor-of-regional-policy-in-security