Press release.

A regular meeting of the Special Working Group (SWG) and Senior Officials Committee of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was held in Almaty on October 15-17, 2007. These events assumed special significance because it coincided with the 15^th Anniversary celebrations of the CICA process – a very important landmark in the development of CICA. Official delegations of the Member States which participated in the Senior Officials Committee meeting noted with satisfaction that considerable progress had been made since President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed convening CICA fifteen years ago. Member States reaffirmed their commitment to take the CICA process further and make it a successful forum to address the issues of peace and security in Asia

The main items on the agenda of the meetings were consideration of the action for the realization of the CICA Confidence Building Measures and the Cooperative Approach for the Implementation of the CICA Confidence Building Measures; consideration of the CICA’s external relations; discussion of the Convention on Legal Capacity of the CICA Secretariat and its Privileges and Immunities; and budget of the CICA Secretariat for 2008

After taking into account the progress report on realization of the Cooperative Approach in human dimension, SOC approved Concept Paper and Plan of Action, provided by Kazakhstan which was recommended by the Special Working Group. SOC also took note of the information provided by the Republic of Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan and Republic of Turkey concerning the proposed time table for coordinating the CBMs under their responsibility. It was also took note of the draft Concept Paper presented by the Islamic Republic of Iran on the “Cooperation among CICA Member States to fight illicit drug trafficking”, India’s willingness to co-coordinate CBMs in the fields of energy security cooperation and cooperation for the development of secure and effective systems of transportation corridors with the Republic of Korea and Republic of Azerbaijan respectively and Israel’s offer to share its expertise in the fields of water management, advance agriculture, hi-tech development, disaster and crisis management and indicated its readiness to hold workshops in one or more in these fields.

Another key development of those meetings was the issue of establishing CICA’s External relations. In this context, the CICA Secretariat presented its reports on the potential benefits of establishing links between CICA and ECO, EurAsEC, SAARC and SCO. SOC approved the proposal for establishing links between CICA Secretariat and Secretariats of Economic Cooperation Organization, Eurasian Economic Community, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and also draft Memoranda of Understanding between CICA Secretariat and Secretariats of Economic Cooperation Organization and Eurasian Economic Community.

SOC has tasked the CICA Secretariat to initiate the process of holding a Conference of Asian regional and sub-regional organizations and fora under its auspices.

The parties also discussed and agreed upon the candidacies from Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Turkey for the positions of the members of the professional personnel of the CICA Secretariat. SOC also approved the budget of the CICA Secretariat for the financial year 2008 and Staffing Matrix of the Secretariat.

Kazakhstan Chairmanship will determine the date and venue of the next SWG/SOC meetings in the first quarter of 2008 after consultations with Member States. SOC expressed its appreciation for the offer of the Republic of Korea to host meetings of SWG/SOC in the second quarter of 2008 and India’s offer to host the SWG/SOC Meetings. Dates in this regard will be discussed with the CICA Secretariat.

Kazakhstan also proposed to host the Third CICA Ministerial Meeting in the third quarter of 2008.

SOC adopted the Final Communiqué concerning the development of the CICA process.

The successfully concluded meetings of the SWG/SOC once again demonstrated ever increasing interest and willingness of all the parties in the speedy realisation of Confidence Building Measures in Asia, which are aimed at strengthening peace, stability and security in the region.