PRESS RELEASE

The CICA Experts Meeting on the implementation of Confidence Building Measures in the area of New Challenges and Threats was held in Ankara, Republic of Turkey, on 31 January – 1 February, 2008. The Meeting was inaugurated by H.E. Mr. Rafet Akgunay, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey who delivered the opening statement on behalf of H.E. Mr. Ali Babacan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. In his statement, the Honorable Minister highlighted the achievements of CICA in the short time since its inception and hoped that CICA would continue to address the other issues on its agenda including implementation of Confidence Building Measures spelt out in the CICA Catalogue of CBMs. He hoped that the Experts Meeting would provide food for thought for moving forward on the front of meeting New Challenges and Threats.

This was the third CICA Experts Meeting to develop concepts for implementation of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) in different fields among the Member States. The First Experts Meeting was held in Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan in June 2007 in the field of Human dimensions and the Second Experts Meeting was held in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran in December 2007 in the field of Combating Illicit Drugs.

The Experts Meeting in Ankara was attended by delegates from all the eighteen Member States of CICA, Observer States and Organizations and representatives of Multilateral Organizations like OSCE, United Nations Office for Drug Control (UNODC), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and other UN Agencies in addition to the delegation of the CICA Secretariat led by Mr. Jandos Asanov, Executive Director. With over ninety attendees, this was the largest attended CICA Experts Meeting so far.

The objective of the Ankara Meeting was to identify practical steps and joint actions through the elaboration of clear and concrete mechanisms for the implementation of CBMs in the area of New Challenges and Threats as well as to act as a platform for dialogue between the Members States to share their views on those new challenges and threats which they see of particular relevance to their respective countries and to exchange views on their national experiences in this regard.

With a view to addressing various manifestations of the new threats and challenges, the Agenda of the Meeting was divided under four broad themes:

• Border control and management issues;
• Police related issues;
• Terrorism;
• Trafficking issues.

Proceedings under each thematic head were set into motion by key note speeches by experts from International Organizations like OSCE, UNODC, IOM and from the relevant agencies of the Government of the Republic of Turkey followed by extensive exchange of views by the delegates.

It was agreed that the Member States would follow step by step approach while focusing on the priority areas. Views exchanged at the Meeting would be compiled in the form of a consolidated summary which would form the basis of agenda for elaboration of a draft Concept Paper and Action Plan to be finalized at the next Experts Meeting or the Special Working Group Meeting of CICA.

On the sidelines of the Experts Meeting, the Executive Director of CICA had meetings with H.E. Mr. Rafet Akgunay, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and H.E. Mr. Tomur Bayer, Director General for International Security Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and discussed issues pertaining to CICA. The Executive Director also had meetings with two of the leading think tanks of Turkey, namely, Foreign Policy Institute and Centre for Eurasian Strategic Studies.

The Participants in the Experts Meeting expressed their gratitude and appreciation to the Republic of Turkey as the Coordinating Country for warm hospitality and excellent arrangements for the Meeting.