Astana prepares to host CICA summit, expects 11 heads of state
What is CICA?
CICA is a forum that builds on the concept that there is a close link between peace, security, and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world, which can be achieved through dialogue and cooperation leading to a common indivisible area of security in Asia where all states co-exist peacefully, and their people live in peace, freedom, and prosperity.
CICA, in fact, a brainchild of Kazakhstan at the dawn of its Independence, has now turned into a continental platform with a broad geographical reach and comprehensive agenda.
The idea of establishing such a forum belongs to First President Nursultan Nazarbayev. He proposed this idea from the rostrum of the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. The CICA initiative was born on this day.
The criterion to become a member of CICA was for a state to have at least a part of its territory in Asia.
Seven years later in 1999, 15 states meeting this criterion signed the Declaration on the Principles Guiding Relations between and became founding members of CICA. Now, CICA has 27 member states accounting for nearly 90 percent of the territory and population of Asia, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, South Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. 9 countries and 5 multi-national organizations, including the United Nations, have observer status.
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In June 2002, Almaty hosted the first CICA summit, where the participants signed an Almaty Act, which has since served as the charter of CICA. The Almaty Act also sets the goals and objectives of CICA and guides the work of Member States in the platform. The second summit was hosted by Almaty as well in June 2006, the third summit was in Istanbul in June 2010, the fourth in Shanghai in May 2014, and the fifth in Dushanbe in June 2019.
CICA operates across five dimensions - economic, environmental, human, military-political, and new challenges and threats.
CICA has all features to turn into a full-fledged organization, announced President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at a meeting with the heads of delegations participating in the CICA Foreign Ministers meeting in October 2021. This is one of the strategic goals of the Kazakhstan’s chairpersonship for 2020-2022.
«CICA already possesses all the essential features of an international organization, including foundational documents, decision-making and working bodies, operational budget, and a permanent Secretariat. The proposed transformation will highlight the new role of Asia in global affairs. This move will also affirm the member states’ commitment to creating a genuinely common, indivisible, and comprehensive security architecture in the largest continent,» said Tokayev back then.
CICA summit in Astana
This year is an important milestone for the conference, as it marks 30 years since its establishment.
«CICA has successfully developed and effectively modernized the Catalog of Confidence-Building Measures. In the course of CICA development, new institutions were established - the business souncil, the business forum and the youth council. During Kazakhstan’s chairpersonship, a council of wise persons was established on the initiative of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The forum of think tanks acquired the status of a permanent institution. Turkmenistan became a CICA observer, the procedure for Kuwait to become a full member was launched, and the external relations of CICA were significantly expanded. The CICA has significantly increased its visibility and has a good reputation in the international arena,» said Adil Tursunov during the celebration of CICA’s 30th anniversary on October 5 in Astana.
According to Aibek Smadiyarov, a spokesperson of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, the heads of member states, observer states, observer organizations, partner organizations, and guests have been invited to the event. At least 11 heads of state confirmed their participation.
«A total of about 50 delegations are expected to arrive. It is expected that the CICA summit will be one of the largest foreign policy events in Kazakhstan and the continent in the post-pandemic period. The upcoming summit is the main event of Kazakhstan's presidency, which, among other things, will summarize our two-year work as CICA chair. During the summit it is planned to adopt several documents and decisions,» he said at a press briefing on October 10.
«Over the past 30 years, CICA has turned into a multilateral mechanism for strengthening stability and prosperity in the Asian continent. Since its inception, CICA has grown to 27 member states, covering 90 percent of the Asian continent,» added Smadiyarov.
The strengthening of relations between CICA member states, something that could be achieved in Astana this week, is crucial at a time of growing challenges, according to Adel Adaileh, a Jordanian veteran diplomat and an expert at the CICA Secretariat.
«The map of challenges and threats has been changed with the change of the global order following the end of the Cold War, with the emergence of new patterns of challenges and threats, which unfortunately become more complicated. (…) Among these threats and challenges are terrorism, transnational organized crime, internal conflicts, security of information and communication technologies, epidemiological safety, public health and pharmaceutical issues, arms trafficking, and illicit drug flow,» he said.
In a complex geopolitical context, and with economic slowdown worldwide, no country in the world can confront these threats alone. «The cooperation of the international community represented by governments, international and regional organizations and civil society institutions is a must to confront these threats firmly and rigorously,» he said.
Agenda of the upcoming summit
According to Aidar Kurmashev, head of the international and geoeconomic research department at the Kazakh Institute for Strategic Studies, the agenda of the summit this week will focus on the most pressing issues facing the continent.
«The world is facing a crisis of multilateralism. Global and regional supply chain issues are increasingly politicized. Food security is being eroded, posing enormous risks and threats to both states and their populations. There is a spike in inflation, which is putting pressure on all social strata, especially the poor. The geopolitics of supply chains can become a barrier to solving global problems,» he said in an interview to this story.
He recalled President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s key tenets at international summits this year, including Kazakhstan's commitment to acting as a reliable supplier of grain and other socially important food products and call to comply with the fundamental principles of the UN.
«The fragmentation, separation, polarization and fragmentation of the world community along different fault lines do not contribute to the development of consolidated and mutually complementary solutions to global challenges,» he added.
Describing CICA as a «powerful dialogue platform in terms of its parameters and significance,» Kurmashev expects the key target areas of the sixth CICA summit will be a presentation of Kazakhstan's vision of how the world system will unfold in difficult geopolitical circumstances, and the country’s ongoing domestic political and economic reforms, including the New Kazakhstan paradigm and its foreign policy strategy.
The summit program will be rich in content, said CICA Executive Secretary Kairat Sarybay.
«With regard to the secretariat, we are very pleased to report that member states have agreed on a very extensive agenda for the forthcoming summit. I expect this summit to be somewhat historic. I am not going to make any predictions for the future, but we can create some records, an unprecedented situation in a positive sense,» Sarybay told journalists on the sidelines of the event marking the 30th anniversary of CICA.
To strengthen the CICA institutionally, gradual and step-by-step improvements and additions to the Catalogue of Confidence-Building Measures are expected along with expanding the areas of cooperation within the five dimensions of interaction. The summit in Astana is also expected to transform the conference into a full-fledged organization, marking a significant milestone in the history of the CICA. But for it to function properly, the will of its members to take joint and decisive action to achieve its goals will be paramount.
Written by Assel Satubaldina