Almaty, 21st May, 2007

… The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is a forward-looking regional mechanism. The initiative on convening the CICA was for the first time put forward by me 15 years ago at the United Nations General Assembly and today is being implemented with success.
Nowadays CICA brings together 18 countries which cover 90 per cent of the territory of Asia and the population of these countries comprises half of the world’s population. Another 9 countries and international organisations enjoy the status of observers.
The past two summits of the Conference allow us to describe the CICA as an important mechanism of ensuring security on the Asian continent.
I am confident that successful activities of the Conference as an all-continental structure and platform for interaction in the long term can be considered as the basis for the creation of a security organisation on the Asian continent. I am of the view that in Asia we can deal with our problems ourselves through dialogue and meetings.

In this context I have to mention that Kazakhstan has applied for the membership in the ASEAN Regional Forum for security (ARF). This in its turn will open new perspectives for international cooperation and create favourable conditions for further construction of “the Eurasian belt” of security ARF-CICA-OSCE.