5th International Turkish-Asian Congress

Building of Security in Asia and CICA

The “5th International Turkish-Asian Congress“ under the title of “Building of Security in Asia and CICA“ will be organized by TASAM on 3-5 June 2010 just before the official summit meeting with the participation of distinguished think tank organizations of the CICA member countries in Istanbul.

Turkey, will take the term of presidency of CICA (Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia) from Kazakhstan, the founder country of CICA, at the official multilateral summit which will be held on 7-9 June 2010.We believe that, the mentioned international meeting which will be oriented to the distinguished think tanks representatives, experts, academicians and decision makers from our country and other member countries of CICA will make significant contributions to the policy and action plans with the “Building of Security in Asia“.

TASAM has placed its studies onto an Asian ground, aiming to serve for the development of mutual relations and the interaction between the investors, political decision makers, vocational institutions and scientists of Turkey and Asian countries.

As we all know, the Asian continent has maintained its existence as a critical geostrategic and economical area for many centuries, including the Pacific, Atlantic, North Sea and the Indian subcontinent. Trade, transportation and communication have always been too difficult and dangerous at this geography. Natural obstacles, changing borders after each war have been a huge barrier for the stability of the continent. However, in today’s globalization environment, the most important prerequisite for economic development and prosperity is the free movement of assets, services and capital at a secure and safe environment.

It is no doubt that the distinctive conditions of the Asian continent make it impossible to create an economical and political integration as in the example of the European Union. However, this situation shall never be perceived as an obstacle before the development of mutual relations and the cooperation between the actors of the Continent.

What is aimed with the “5th International Turkish - Asian Congress, Building the Security in Asia and CICA“ is to reveal the potential cooperation opportunities and cooperation forms in the field of security and to draw a perspective towards the future by taking into account the current situations of the member countries of CICA within the scope of global struggles for power and the Asian geopolitics.

CICA (Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia) is a structuring that contains 40 million kilometers (approximately 90% of the whole continent) with its population of 3 billion, which swiftly proceeds on the way to become a distinctive arena that depends on reconciliation and dialogue instead of mutual challenges. This structuring, that has had a great significance for our country ever since its establishment, is the only regional security organization in which Turkey is a member. Moreover, at the Summit to be held in the 07-09 June of 2010, our country will officially take over the term presidency from the founder country, Kazakhstan, for a period of two years until 2012.

The CICA process, based on the principles of peace and trust, was first started on October 5 of 1992 by the Head of the State of Kazakhstan N. Nazarbayev in the 47th General Meeting of UN, as a cooperation process that aimed to generate an intrinsic security mechanism that involved the general of Asia for the purpose of protecting peace and stability in the continent. CICA is a security organization that has 20 member and 10 observer members today. CICA aims at resolving the disputes that has been continuing for long years in the Asian region by the way of creating an environment of dialogue and consultation between the parties or those that have been damaged by these disputes.

The Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures was signed in the 2nd Meeting of Foreign Ministers of CICA Member Countries in Almaty, dated October 22, 2004, in which our Foreign Minister of the period Abdullah Gul representing our country took active role. The document involved military, political, economical, environmental and humanitarian dimensions as well as the subjects of preventing and resolving the new anxiety and dangers arising in the continent. The activity document, named as “Collaborative Approach for Carrying Out the CICA Confidence Building Measures“ was arranged within the scope of “Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures“. The said document was accepted in the Per Annum Session of CICA Senior Representatives Committee, held in March of 2007 in Bangkok.

Seven member countries accepted the coordinatorship of different projects related with the confidence building measures in time and declared that they were ready to carry out these projects. For instance; Azerbaijan took over the coordinatorship of creating a system for safe and efficient transportation in the sector of energy while Iran dealt with the fight against narcotics and the national management of the state of emergency; Kazakhstan obtained the coordinatorship of humanitarian aid while Korean Republic dealt with cooperation in the areas of information technology and energy security; Russia had the subject of economic cooperation while Tajikistan’s area was tourism and finally, Turkey obtained the coordinatorship of new anxieties and threats.

Furthermore, it is envisaged that an A-20 Forum (similar to G-20) shall be established within the body of CICA during this time of global financial crisis. This offer was raised by N. Nazarbayev, the Head of State of Kazakhstan, in the Boao Asian Forum, dated June 18, 2009.

Parties which have disputes and struggles between each other (India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine) started their negotiations that led them to the way of finding a solution to their ongoing problems within the scope of CICA Summits and Meetings. The initiatives of CICA are intended to intensify the contemporary world values, to make common the ideas of peace and integration, to bring closer the populations of Asian countries and to establish regional integration. These initiatives have reinforced the role of Kazakhstan, the founder country, in the international arena and open the way for this Post-Soviet state to undertake the term presidency of AGIT 2010 and IKT 2011. The offering of the term presidency of CICA 2010-2012 to Turkey which is a country that is aware of its role in preventing battles and solving them is the most apparent manifestation of the trust that our country gives to other countries.

According to our opinion; it is a historical phenomenon that our country assumed two-years term presidency of CICA which is such an important international organization in Asia where is shaped as the center of economic and political competition the 21st century. We expect that - under the leadership of our country - CICA which was established in a similar structure as the OSCE is going to play an important role to achieve stability on the basis of security among all parameters especially the Asian economies.

We believe that with the official summit Turkey will begin to perform its continent-centered large-scale civil initiatives by means of CICA, the only security organization it is a member of. In this process, to strengthen Turkey’s effectiveness on Asia in each parameter and to provide civil and strategic contribution at maximum recycling and institutionalization of this strengthened effectiveness in all sectors especially the economy, following topics will be discussed in the Congress.

• Economy Security in Asia
• Cooperation in the Field of Energy
• Trans-Europe Energy Networks and Turkey
• Energy Supply Security, Demand Planning and Precautions
• TRACECA Project and Physical Security of Transportation Networks
• USA and Energy Supply Security Policies of EU
• Regional Security and Asian Geopolitics
• Disarmament
• Terrorism- Radicalism