ASTANA, 12 September 2012 – OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier participated in a meeting of foreign ministers of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures (CICA) today in Astana.

CICA, which  is a forum for enhancing co-operation in promoting peace, security and stability in Asia, comprises 24 Member States, seven of which are also OSCE participating States, and seven OSCE Partner for Co-operation countries.

At the forum’s opening, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev stressed that in Asia there are a number of unresolved security problems, including territorial, and drew attention to the fact that the Asian region has the highest concentration of states which possess nuclear weapons. “These challenges should be addressed by strengthening co-operative security in Asia,” said the President.

President Nazarbayev advocated for co-operation with other international organizations, and stated: “It is necessary to develop CICA – OSCE interaction, which could be transformed into a common platform for Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security.”

In his address Zannier said: “At the 2010 OSCE Summit in Astana – the first in 11 years thanks to the very committed leadership of Kazakhstan – the OSCE participating States declared the security of the OSCE region to be inextricably linked to that of adjacent areas. Against this background, we fully recognize that not only our similar approaches to security, but also our membership commonalities, provide an excellent opportunity for co-operation based on building trust, finding common ground among States and developing common initiatives for achieving shared objectives.”

Referring to the Turkish CICA Chairmanship’s theme of “Constructing Co-operative Security in Asia” Zannier said: “The OSCE has long championed a comprehensive and co-operative approach to security. Our two organizations share, therefore, similar approaches to addressing the complex challenges of the 21st century”.

The Secretary General also outlined a number of areas for interaction, including sharing expertise on the implementation of confidence- and security-building measures, combating transnational threats and reducing the risks posed by cyber and ICT threats as well as promoting security in and around Afghanistan.