PRESS RELEASE

Third Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was held in Almaty on 25 August 2008. The meeting was inaugurated by H.E. Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In his inaugural address, President Nazarbayev noted with satisfaction that the initiative taken by Kazakhstan in 1992 to convene CICA turned out to be a reality in international relations and that CICA has become an effective instrument of collective diplomacy in maintaining peace, security and cooperation in Asia. The President mentioned that Member States of CICA today face the difficult task of fighting multiple challenges of poverty, famine, epidemics, environmental degradation, drug trafficking and terrorism. Member States need to fight these challenges collectively. The President expressed gratitude to the Members States for their initiatives in implementing Confidence Building Measures and requested them to take steps for developing and strengthening the military-political dimension which, in future, should be the main focus of CICA. The President also touched upon the recent political developments and other challenges facing the world including situations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Middle East, North Korea and Georgia.

Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and United Arab Emirates were admitted as full Members of the CICA at the Ministerial Meeting taking the membership to twenty. State of Qatar was conferred the status of Observer to CICA at the meeting. President Nazarbayev welcomed the new members and expressed the hope that more Asian states would join the Conference.

The meeting was chaired by H.E. Mr. Marat Tazhin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Kazakhstan. The Ministers exchanged views on regional and global issues and explored possibilities to further enhance cooperation, peace and security in Asia. The Ministers reaffirmed the importance of promoting CICA as a multilateral forum for close cooperation, continuous dialogue and interaction, comprehensive exchange of views, addressing new challenges and threats, facilitating prevention of conflicts, peaceful settlement of disputes as well as developing  and implementing agreed Confidence Building Measures in the Asian continent.

The Ministers also adopted “Declaration of the Third Meeting of the CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs” and “Conclusions of the Third Meeting of the CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs”. Copies of these two documents are enclosed. At the meeting, the “Protocol Amending the Statute of the CICA Secretariat” was adopted and opened for the signatures of the Member States and draft “Convention on the Legal Capacity of the CICA Secretariat, its Personnel and their Privileges and Immunities” was adopted in principle.

During the Ministerial Meeting CICA Secretariat signed Memoranda of Understanding with the administrative bodies of Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and International Organisation for Migration.

The Ministerial Meeting was preceded by meetings of the Special Working Group (SWG) and Senior Officials Committee (SOC) of CICA on 20-23 August 2008. SOC took important decisions relating to CICA including adoption of “Concept Paper on Cooperation among CICA Member States in combating Illicit Drug Production and Trafficking and Precursors”, adoption of “Action Plan on implementation of Confidence Building Measures in the area of New Threats and Challenges” and approval of Draft Memorandum of Understanding between CICA Secretariat and Administration of International Organization for Migration. India announced that it would host the next meetings of SWG and SOC in New Delhi on 18-20 February, 2008.