Since the beginning of its independence, Kazakhstan has launched a number of key international initiatives aimed at strengthening global stability and security. Nearly all of them, were seemingly too ambitious for a country which just proclaimed independence, had a relatively small population and was not strong enough to be a key factor in geopolitics, especially in comparison to its neighbors such as Russia and China. However, in reality, Kazakh initiatives were striking, the problems addressed and settled by these very initiatives were crucial, and their impact to the global and regional security was tremendous. Moreover, many managed to leave a historical impact.
Allow me to elaborate:
- Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, initiated the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. At minimum, it was to be used as an instrument to encourage a peaceful, a velvet divorce of republics in the enormous empire, or at maximum, use its large potential to build independent states. As all of you know, both of these goals were achieved successfully. I believe you can all imagine, what the world could have been like instead-greater Balkans and etc.
- Kazakhstan is the only country in the world that has voluntarily rejected to be a nuclear state despite the fact that it inherited nearly 2000 nuclear warheads and de-facto, it was 4th nuclear power in the world. Undoubtedly, it was and still is a great example to be followed by the international community. It made a significant contribution to global security and there is a strong need to highlight the importance of such a step in our time as well.
- Kazakhstan was able to make successful demarcations of its borders with Russia and China and this is not merely a national or a bilateral issue. Taking into consideration the fact that the Kazakh border in the Soviet era has always been a source of tension and dispute between USSR and PRC, it is not difficult to imagine how the world managed to escape one of the biggest territorial conflicts in its modern history.
- Kazakhstan has initiated both with Russia and China, the formation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. You are all aware of the fact that it becomes the main factor of the new multipolar world after the collapse of the unipolar world that has been dominated the world immediately after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and lasted we can see exactly till the formation of the SCO.
It is fair to say that a worthy contribution to world security and the new world order was made.
- Kazakhstan has taken many other key initiatives such as the formation of the Turkic Council or so called union of the Turkic states. That was realized after the appropriate agreement was signed last year in Nahchivan by the heads of the Turkic states.
- Finally, the historic initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to convene the CICA, from the tribune of the United Nations' General Assembly in 1992, was a significant and timely step in international politics.
The move was designed, to create for the first time in history an effective and a reliable mechanism of preventive diplomacy in Asia. This goal could have been achieved only through multilateral efforts, as well as through interaction and implementation of confidence building measures. In contrast to other regions of the world, such structures did not exist in Asia, and previous attempts to create such structures have failed. That is why CICA can be proclaimed a prototype of the common Asian system of collective security and this is its main value. Based on the worldwide and European experience, including practical achievements of the UN and OSCE, the CICA is rapidly moving towards the path of institutionalization and is gaining an increasing support in the Asian continent.
While not being formalized yet as an international organization or a forum for dialogue, CICA is in itself a unique international structure, a comfortable platform for political dialogue and consultation on security issues in Asia, often between countries that are either in conflict or do not share diplomatic relations.
Given the geographical, historical, economic, political and socio-cultural heterogeneity of countries in Asia, CICA member States have taken simple and practical steps towards a creating a regional framework for security. The founders of the CICA admitted that reactions to common security challenges should be a cooperative and multilateral, as a result, the decisions taken at the conference are based upon consensus. Participating states came to an understanding that the existing differences in the region should not cause obstacle to find common approaches to common threats.
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