Excellencies,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to welcome you all to the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Day reception. The idea of creating an efficient and functional structure for ensuring peace and security in Asia was first proposed on 5 October 1992, at the 47th Session of the United

Nations General Assembly, by H.E. Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Therefore CICA member states have come to commemorate the 5th of October as the official day of CICA.

This year we are commemorating the 20th anniversary of the initiation of the process of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. This is truly a historic moment for CICA, which has evolved into an organization comprising 24 member states, 8 observer states and 4 observer international organizations. The CICA geography stretching from Middle East to Southeast Asia, represents approximately 90% of Asia and nearly half of the world’s population. The unique structure of its membership puts CICA in an ideal position to deal with risks and challenges of the 21st century.

Excellencies,

Turkey took over the Chairmanship from Kazakistan at the Third CICA Summit held on 8 June 2010 in İstanbul for a period of two years. The member states decided earlier this year to extend Turkey’s Chairmanship for two more years until 2014.

Turkey’s Chairmanship vision for CICA is to build a system of cooperative security in Asia.

We believe that cooperative security order in Asia can be developed through dialogue, and that Confidence Building Measures in the economic, environment, human, new challenges and threats and military-political dimensions, are the main building blocks for constructing cooperative security.

We will continue to promote all five dimensions of CICA equally.

Distinguished guests,

During the last two years various CICA meetings were organized by the Turkish Chairmanship in the above –mentioned dimensions, along with the regularly held Special Working Group and Senior Officials Committee meetings.

In order to promote the economic dimension, an Economic Sub Group was formed under the guidance of the CICA Senior Officials Committee. Two CICA Business Forums were held first in Bangkok and then in Istanbul, where substantive progress was achieved in promoting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and establishing business-to-business contacts among SMEs from CICA member states.

Turkey, as the coordinator country of the new challenges and threats dimension, hosted the CICA Experts Meeting on Combating Terrorism in Ankara, and also 1St CICA Chiefs of Police Meeting and CICA -International Organization for Migration (IOM) Workshop, both in Antalya.

As far as the environmental dimension is concerned, preparations are under way in coordination with the Turkish Ministry of Forest and Water Affairs to host the 2nd Experts Meeting on Combating Desertification, where establishing a CICA Research and Training Center for Combating Desertification in Konya is on the agenda.

It is also noteworthy to mention that a Voluntary Group meeting on military-political dimension was held in Almaty earlier this year.

Excellencies,

The 4th Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of CICA was held under the co-chairmanship of H.E. Ahmet Davutoğlu and H.E. Yerzhan Kazykhanov on 12 September 2012 in Astana. A comprehensive declaration was adopted at the end of the Ministerial Meeting. Prior to the meeting, a Commemorative Session for the 20th anniversary of the CICA process took place. Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev attended the Commemorative Session and delivered a keynote speech.

The tasks given to us by the Ministers will be followed-up firstly at the next CICA Special Working Group and Senior Officials Committee meetings tentatively scheduled for the end of November in Ankara.

An important outcome of the Ministerial Meeting was the agreement, in principle, by the member states that the People’s Republic of China will take over the Chairmanship in the middle of 2014 when hosting the 4th CICA Summit of Heads of State and Government.

Now that the next Chairman is decided, in principle, serious consideration should be given to establishing a CICA “Troika” in the coming period. This will enable CICA to deal with a variety of issues in a more efficient and forward looking manner. The Chairmanship is confident that CICA will continue its transformation into a fully-fledged organization. An important step in this direction will be the planned move of the CICA Secretariat from Almaty to Astana. Once the Secretariat is functional in Astana, the CICA member states’ Ambassadors to Kazakhstan may be appointed as Permanent Representatives to CICA.

Ladies and gentlemen,

H.E. Ahmet Davutoğlu, in his speech at the CICA Commemorative Session in Astana, said that the diversity of the national characteristics, traditions, cultures and values of CICA member states is not a divisive, but a valuable enriching factor which brings us all together. In fact diversity is not the weakness, but the strength of CICA.This makes CICA unique.Today’s world is definitely in need of such organizations.

In concluding my remarks, I would like to thank you all for being here and wish you a pleasant evening.