CICA is the Almaty, Kazakhstan, based Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Building Measures in Asia, and this article is our sequel to our article of June 19, 2006, dealing with the one day meeting that was held on June 17, 2006, with the participation of 21 Asian countries at high level - that included 9 Presidents, one Prime Minister, 3 Deputy Prime Ministers … The Presidents of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, were there, as well as the Prime Minister of Thailand and Deputy Prime Ministers from Israel. Mongolia, and Turkey. Korea and the United Arab Emirates were represented by Foreign Ministers, India was represented by a Cabinet-level minister (Oil & Gas) and Iran and the Ukraine by deputy foreign ministers, Palestine by a special envoy of the President, Japan by a special envoy of the Government. The UNSG sent Mr. Ibrahim Gambari, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. As well were present representatives of OSCE and LAS (the League of Arab States), the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the EU, and the Eurasian Economic Community, and Ambassadors from Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, USA, Vietnam.

CICA was conceived according to the lines of OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and is an organization that brings together participants with serious problems, and in its own language: “trying to reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable by bringing together countries with historical conflicts and high tensions among themselves, such as India and Pakistan, Iran the Palestine Administration and Israel.” At this meeting South Korea became a member of CICA, in an effort of finding another venue for consideration of the problems of North Korea and its neighbors. The 2002 CICA Summit took place at the height of tensions between India and Pakistan with the participation of leaders of both countries. This year President Putin noted CICA’s potential in promoting greater cooperation among members in fighting terrorism and fostering economic ties.

The message from Mr. Kofi Annan, the UNSG, is reflected in the following press release from his office:

The official list of the Participants as I got it from the Kazakhstan Mission to the UN, follows:

Reviewing statements made at the CICA meeting, we would like to note several of the topics;

Iran besides of the complaint on restrictions to peaceful use of nuclear technology, its statement that by electing HAMAS, the Palestinians expressed their free will, and compliments to the three organization that Iran is participating - CICA, SCO and ECO, did also express useful ideas, the like of noting the three initiatives regarding the security and stability of the five littoral States of the Caspian Sea - The Kazakhstan suggestion for a “Political Stability Pact”. the Russian proposed “Casfour Pact,” and Iran’s own “Confidence Building and Stability in the Caspian Sea.” Iran expressed its readiness to negotiate and finalize these initiatives, bilaterally and multilaterally, but stressed that “the waters of the Caspian SEa should be reserved only for the 5 littoral States. this is a clear reminder of problems to come. On the other hand iran stressed its interest in finalizing the Peace Pipeline project with India and Pakistan “as this will help both countries to defuse tension and enter into an amicable relationship in the wise tradition of the sub-continent.”

Afghanistan reminded the meeting that “among the challenges we face, terrorism poses by far the gravest threat to our security and our efforts to improve the lives of our people.”

Further “Five years ago in Afghanistan, an international terrorist network ruled the lives of our people and threatened the security and stability of the entire region and beyond.”

Turkey proposed that “As the risks and threats to our security and stability are closely interlinked, efforts to tackle them should also be consistent and harmonious with each other. Cooperative security requires genuine partnership; a partnership based on mutual accountability, transparency and confidence both at domestic and foreign policy levels.” Further - “mechanisms of cooperation among us should be flexible. They should be able to evolve and diversify in line with the changing security environment. In that respect, we should introduce, as necessary, the methods of cooperation in the fields of: - economic affairs, - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION (emphasis mine - SustainabiliTank.info) - GOOD-GOVERNANCE, - development of energy and transport routes, - as well as SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INTERACTION.”

Shimon Peres, now Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, stated: CICA is a rather successful coalition, since all other coalitions are either regional, religious, or strategic blocs. This is an alliance for peace, and not for religion, ideology, war or conflict. It is a very interesting coalition and, perhaps, the first good will alliance, and it is great that it helps countries voluntarily develop economic ties.” On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict he said that before reaching political border we ned to achieve peace economically - political peace will be achieved later. The Delegate for the Palestinian President said ” We hope CICA will not only help solve the problem between Palestine and Israel, but will bring contributions to global security.”

In summary, we noted at length, in our two articles, this CICA meeting, because we were frustrated at the sparsity of information about this event that was dished out to us at the UN. Considering the moral, political, and even scientifical, bankruptcy of the UN regional system in Asia - that has all but physically eliminated Israel and transfered it to Europe, and as a result undermined the whole UN system condemning it to picking up the Palestinian cause to the point that the whole UN system is being pushed to a monetarily very expensive rehash, but political irrelevancy, this effort by Kazakhstan feels indeed like a welcome breeze. After all - half of humanity resides in Asia, much of Africa’s problems have roots in Asia, and CICA is one of the few efforts that may have the potential to help Asia and as a result the rest of the world as well. Will it get the moral standing that OSCE has attained in Europe? Only time can tell. Will the UN let CICA in and have it replace the present UN system in Asia? That would require much more guts then one can expect in this glass building.