Sultanov B.K. Kazakhstan Today

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3.13. Kazakhstan and the CIS

Kazakhstan attaches priority signiﬁ cance in its foreign policy to

cooperation within the Commonwealth of Independent States and the

development of integration ties with its participants.

Since the signing of the declaration on the establishment of the

CIS (in Almaty on 21 December 1991), Kazakhstan has been actively

speaking in favour of strengthening the organisation, developing

intense relations within it, supporting and expanding trade and eco-

nomic and cultural and humanitarian ties preserved between member

states.

Kazakhstan’s approach to multilateral cooperation within the

CIS is based on the concept of multi-speed integration which means

the formation of a small group of countries that are linked by closer

cooperation. At the same time, Kazakhstan invariably adhered to the

idea that activities of subregional associations within the CIS should

be open in nature and their aims and actions should comply with the

general direction of the development of the CIS.

The commonwealth is characterised by member states’ selec-

tive participation in particular spheres of multilateral interaction.

The CIS bodies’ decisions only have power for those countries that

were involved in their adoption. The well-developed network of CIS

charter bodies includes the Council of Heads of States, the Council

of Heads of Government, the Interparliamentary Assembly, the

Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Council of Ministers of

Defence, the Council of Commanders of Border Troops and others.

The permanent executive, administrative and coordination body is

the Executive Committee.

In line with a programme for the development of the CIS, which

was approved by the Council of Heads of States in June 2000, eco-

nomic cooperation was given priority [54].

In 1994, CIS countries adopted measures to switch to a multilat-

eral free trade regime based on the corresponding agreement on the

creation of a free trade zone.

However, CIS countries failed to draft and agree on a multilateral

basis to a list of exemptions from the free trade regime provided in the

agreement, which is why the 1999 protocol on amending the agree-

ment on the creation of the free trade zone stipulated that exemptions

from the free trade zone that were of a temporary nature might be

applied on the basis of bilateral documents.

We should note that as a result of the existing differences in eco-

nomic potential, the level of economic reforms and internal and ex-

ternal conditions for economic development the movement towards a

full-scale free trade zone is not even possible for the CIS countries.

As a consequence, in addition to coordinated actions, each country

is characterised by the gradual formation of a free trade zone which

is intrinsic only to itself.

This means that the process of economic integration between the

CIS countries has a complicated and contradictory nature. Factors that

directly inﬂ uence it are the different levels of each state’s economic

development and contradictions in particular political and economic

interests of the member states.

In recent years the issues of countering new security challenges

and threats and cooperation in the law-enforcement sphere have be-

come increasingly relevant. Given the actual development of events,

cooperation in this sphere is now of the highest demand.

An extended contractual and legislative basis was created for

interaction in this sphere. For example, a programme for ﬁ ghting

international terrorism and other manifestations of extremism is be-

ing fulﬁ lled. An accord was achieved on the implementation of an

international programme of joint measures for ﬁ ghting crimes within

the CIS.

New organisational structures and mechanisms of interaction were

created. This primarily includes the CIS Antiterrorist Centre, which

has been in operation since 2001 at Russia’s Federal Security Service

(FSB) in Moscow, using special subunits and a joint data base of

security bodies, intelligence services and other relevant bodies from

the CIS countries.

Joint efforts are growing in the sphere of ﬁ ghting drugs. The CIS

adopted a blueprint for cooperation in countering the illegal turnover

of drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors (in 2002). As part of

this blueprint member states carry out joint anti-drug programmes.

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The desire to interact in this sphere is obvious and very strong

because the CIS countries are vulnerable to this threat and are actu-

ally on the frontline of drug aggression.

Cooperation is becoming active in the humanities sphere too. One

of the main objectives in this sphere is the further development of the

historically established common educational, scientiﬁ c and cultural

space as an important factor of encouraging integration processes in

other spheres.

At the same time, there are also shortcomings in the CIS and they

considerably complicate its activities and hinder its development.

Since its establishment the organisation has adopted over 1,600 docu-

ments, most of which have remained on paper.

The CIS countries and bodies are currently searching for new

ways to improve its activities. At the summit in Astana in September

2004 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed to reform the

CIS in the context of the escalation of international terrorism. The

Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs was ordered to draft propos-

als to improve and reform the CIS bodies and submit them for the

following sitting of the Council of Heads of State.

This work resulted in the Council of Heads of State adopting a

decision on this issue at the summit in Kazan in August 2005. With

the aim of drafting additional proposal of a conceptual nature relat-

ing to the further improvement of mutually beneﬁ cial cooperation

within the CIS, a high level group on improving the efﬁ ciency of the

CIS was set up.

At the summit of heads of CIS member states in Moscow in July

2006, the organisation’s chairman, President Nazarbayev, noted the

commonwealth’s positive role in easing the consequences of the

break-up of the USSR and preventing events from developing into

an unpredictable scenario.

However, the Kazakh president noted that the CIS had failed to

become an efﬁ cient integration mechanism. Moreover, disintegration

trends strengthened in the former Soviet space. As a result, the Kazakh

leader stressed the need to choose pragmatic and the most important

aspects and forms of mutually beneﬁ cial cooperation that meet the

interests of all peoples inhabiting in the CIS countries.

Under the Kazakh programme for the reformation of the CIS the

member states should focus their efforts on those aspects that can

bring about interstate consensus and that objectively are not within

the powers of other regional associations or are not used to the full.

In particular, Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed ﬁ ve important direc-

tions for the reformation of the commonwealth: a) improve migra-

tion policy; b) strengthen contacts in the transport sphere; c) boost

cooperation in the sphere of education and science; d) join efforts to

counter modern challenges and threats; and e) solve humanitarian

problems.

In as early as 2007 President Nazarbayev’s ideas were imple-

mented. The Kazakh formula of “One year – One topic” was adopted

for the work of the CIS. In 2007, the topic was migration policy. As

part of this, the Kazakh leader proposed the creation of an interstate

council for data on demand and supply in the CIS labour market.

The summit of heads of CIS states in Moscow in February 2008

focused on problems of humanitarian cooperation – educational,

scientiﬁ c, informational, cultural and youth affairs, as well as sport

and tourism.

However, the chief priority of the organisation’s future develop-

ment is still to expand economic cooperation between member states.

In Chisinau, in mid-November 2008 the CIS summit endorsed a plan

of key measures to fulﬁ l a strategy for the CIS’s economic develop-

ment until 2020 [55].

As part of the process of multi-speed integration, at the informal

summit held in Kazakhstan (at Burabai) in December 2008, Belarus,

Kazakhstan and Russia achieved accords on the legislative basis for

the creation of a Customs Union of these three countries [56].

In the sphere of cooperation in the foreign policy sphere, all the

CIS member states supported Kazakhstan’s initiative to chair the

OSCE in 2010. A positive decision on Astana’s application was

treated as a common achievement: Kazakhstan was considered as

a single candidate from CIS countries. It is ﬁ rst time a CIS coun-

try will occupy the post of the OSCE chair, and it is particularly

noteworthy that it is a country which is geographically located in

the Asian region.

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Speaking at the Moscow summit of the CIS in February 2008,

the Kazakh president expressed gratitude to his counterparts “for a

ﬁ rm and consistent position in the issue of supporting Kazakhstan’s

candidacy for the post of the OSCE chair”.

Thus, the continued future boosting of the activities of the various

institutions and structures of the CIS generally meets the interests of

Kazakhstan.

3.14. Kazakhstan and the SCO

Paying priority importance to the issues of maintaining stability

and security in the Eurasian space, Kazakhstan focuses on strength-

ening and developing interaction within the Shanghai Cooperation

Organisation (SCO).

From the early ages of its existence the SCO aimed at strengthening

mutual trust and good neighbourly relations between member states

and assisting their efﬁ cient cooperation in the political and trade and

economic spheres.

A central place in the Shanghai process was occupied by security

issues even when the ﬁ ve participants (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz-

stan, Russia and Tajikistan) ﬁ rst met in Shanghai in 1996 to agree to

strengthen conﬁ dence in the military sphere and mutual reduction in

armed forces along borders.

Between 1996 and 1997 the Shanghai Five signed a number of

agreements to solve border problems along the former Soviet-Chinese

border that had persisted for many years in the past. The Shanghai

and Moscow (which followed the following year) summits became

prototypes of a structure which within the following six years has

been transformed into a fully-ﬂ edged organisation of all-round co-

operation.

The joint work to implement these agreements served as the foun-

dation for what has become know as the Shanghai spirit, the quintes-

sence of which is mutual beneﬁ t, equality, respect for the interests and

opinions of one another, mutual consultations and the achievement of

mutual understanding through consensus and voluntary implementa-

tion of accords achieved.

At the same time, it is worth noting that the new structure logically

ﬁ lled those spaces in the processes of maintaining security which

had existed in the Central Asian region. The involvement of global

players, like Russia and China, became a strong factor in favour of

the policy pursued.

The transformation of the Shanghai Five into the Shanghai Co-

operation Organisation took place at the summit in Shanghai in June

2001, which was attended for the ﬁ rst time by Uzbekistan. As a result

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of this meeting the heads of the six states signed the declaration on

the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the

Shanghai treaty on ﬁ ghting terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Not only did the ﬁ nal document deﬁ ne those phenomena that pose

a threat to all member states, but also indicated speciﬁ c directions

and forms of ﬁ ghting them.

Simultaneously, the declaration on the establishment of the SCO

considerably expanded a range of tasks it is supposed to deal with. Its

objects were to strengthen mutual trust, friendship and good neigh-

bourly relations between member states; to encourage efﬁ cient coop-

eration between them in the political, trade and economic, scientiﬁ c

and technical, cultural, educational, energy, transport, environmental

protection and other spheres; to put joint efforts to maintain peace,

security and stability in the region, build a new democratic, just and

rational political and economic global order [57].

In order to organise the practical activities of the SCO, new

main working bodies were set up: the Council of Heads of State, the

Council of Heads of Government (prime ministers), the Council of

Ministers of Foreign Affairs, conferences of heads of ministries and/or

departments, the Council of National Coordinators; the Secretariat;

and the Regional Antiterrorist Structure (RATS). The secretaries of

member states’ Security Councils and prosecutor-generals also hold

regular meetings.

As a result, in contrast to the Shanghai Five, the SCO has a

wider range of tasks and a more clearly deﬁ ned structure. The new

organisation’s interests were expanded into political, economic and

cultural and humanitarian cooperation.

Kazakhstan consistently insisted on the need to strengthen the

SCO institutions further, develop the organisation’s potential in the

security sphere and expand its partner relations.

These aspects were reﬂ ected in the decisions adopted at the SCO

summit in Astana in July 2005. The summit resulted in the Astana

Declaration and important antiterrorist documents: a blueprint for

cooperation between SCO member states in the ﬁ ght against terrorism,

separatism and extremism and a charter on member states’ permanent

representatives in the RATS.

It was also decided to grant observer status to Pakistan, Iran and

India [58].

The SCO became the start of the formation of a fundamentally

new system of subregional cooperation through close interaction

between six states with the possible membership of other countries

(if they agreed to follow the principles and obligations laid in the

foundation of the SCO).

The SCO is not a military bloc or closed alliance, aimed against

someone else, but an open organisation that is ready for wide inter-

national cooperation, including the possibility of its expansion. The

heads of states deﬁ ned the main tasks of the SCO at the current stage

as supporting peace, stability and security in the region and develop-

ing trade and economic cooperation.

For Kazakhstan, which is interested in maintaining stability and

security in Central Asia, all these points present vital interest. Nothing

less than stability and security is an indispensable condition for the

country’s movement along the path of further economic and political

transformations.

Since international terrorism has become active, ﬁ ghting the so-

called three evils – terrorism, extremism and separatism – has become

a priority for Kazakhstan, like other Central Asian countries. Unlike

many other international organisations, from the very start the SCO

managed to deﬁ ne these phenomena and adopt speciﬁ c aspects and

forms of ﬁ ghting them.

The practical structure of the organisation that implements these

activities is RATS, which has its headquarters in Tashkent. These

aspects are a good basis for the realisation of the SCO’s antiterrorist

potential in the interests of all of its participants.

Kazakhstan precedes from the fact that cooperation between SCO

member states in the trade and economic sphere has long-term pros-

pects. In particular, as an energy exporter Kazakhstan is interested in

alternative routes to supply energy resources to global markets – an

important element of the SCO’s economic policy.

As part of the ﬁ ght against new threats and challenges the issue

of ensuring energy security is becoming increasingly signiﬁ cant for

Kazakhstan, as an energy power. Therefore, as an organisation that

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pays great attention to new threats and challengers, the SCO may

help solve topical problems in this sphere.

In this context Kazakhstan suggested the idea of setting up the

SCO Energy Club as a ﬁ rst step towards an Asian energy strategy,

which may become one of the organisation’s main aspects.

Water issues are also acquiring increasing signiﬁ cance in the Central

Asian region. During the SCO summit in Bishkek in 2007 the Kazakh

President Nursultan Nazarbayev offered to draft common approaches to

the use of crossborder rivers and reservoirs [59]. Water problems may

become relevant for joint member states’ efforts in the future.

One of the acute problems for Kazakhstan is migration which can

only be solved by the combined efforts of a number of countries and

international organisations. It is important to regulate this issue within

the SCO by establishing a special coordination body.

Given the situation in Afghanistan the SCO’s activities in this

sphere – both in terms of military security and ﬁ ghting terrorism and

drug trafﬁ cking and socioeconomic and political reconstruction in

the country – are becoming particularly signiﬁ cant. The SCO-Af-

ghanistan contact group, set up in 2006, is an important coordination

body for this.

The organisation may activate its efforts on Afghanistan by

increasing the level of states’ representations in this contact group

and holding a SCO regional conference on Afghan problems with

representatives of Afghanistan.

At a meeting in Moscow on 14 January 2009, deputy ministers

of foreign affairs from member states agreed that a special working

group would continue preparations for this conference [60].

The SCO’s global reputation is on the rise, which is why the inter-

national community’s interest in it is increasing. India, Iran, Mongolia

and Pakistan enjoy observer status in the organisation. EU experts are

talking about the possibility of granting the organisation the status of

a dialogue partner to the EU.

The CSTO, ASEAN, the EAEC and other regional integration

structures have also shown interest in close partnership with SCO.

Japan, Belarus, Sri Lanka, South Korea and other countries have also

shown interest in a dialogue with the SCO.

Kazakhstan advocates the expansion of the existing interaction

with observer countries and partners of the SCO in various spheres,

including politics, the economy and the cultural and humanitarian

sphere.

Kazakh diplomat Bolat Nurgaliyev has headed the SCO Secretariat

since January 2007. The involvement of Kazakhstan’s representatives

in the work of various structures of the SCO is a factor that improves

the country’s political image and reputation in the international

arena.

As a result, Kazakhstan, as one of the initiators of the Shanghai

process, from the very beginning insisted that the SCO was an im-

portant element in ensuring stability and security in Central Asia. The

organisation was prompted by objective reasons related to problems

in this sphere.

Eight years on from when the Shanghai Five was transformed

into a fully-ﬂ edged international organisation we can say that it is in

demand as a factor to form a just and efﬁ cient architecture of global

security. Therefore, strengthening the existing and building new ef-

fective SCO structures meets the interests of stability and security

in Central Asia, creating the conditions necessary for the region’s

sustainable development.

Interaction within the SCO is of practical interest for Kazakhstan in

terms of encouraging regional integration, ﬁ ghting traditional and new

threats and challenges, pursuing economic policy, ensuring energy

security and solving the situation in Afghanistan. Further boosts to

the SCO’s activities will help pursue Kazakhstan’s foreign policy.

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3.15. Kazakhstan and the EAEC

The economic globalisation is one of the present day’s leading

development trends.

Today, many countries are suffering from the global ﬁ nancial

crisis. Quite obviously, none of them are able to resolve this serious

problem on their own.

It is now important that countries implement a coordinated eco-

nomic policy, for ﬁ nancial institutions to cooperate and to implement

joint projects. Therefore, regional integration is becoming increasingly

signiﬁ cant as an economic development tool.

Thus, in overcoming the consequences of the global economic

crisis and improving the national economy and its competitiveness,

Kazakhstan is seeking to fully use new opportunities to participate in

the growing global division of labour and various forms of interna-

tional cooperation, including the creation of a new common market

of goods and services with other countries [61].

The Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC), which was set up on

10 October 2000, is the most advanced integration body in the CIS.

The presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Ta-

jikistan signed its founding agreement as an important step to develop

real integration between the ﬁ ve countries and mutual comprehensive

cooperation between them to form a Single Economic Space (SES)

in the future [62, p 142].

On 28 August 2006, Uzbekistan joined this pact but later, in Oc-

tober 2008, the country withdrew from the organisation.

Trade between the member countries grew from $29bn in 2001

to $104bn in 2007. In 2008, it exceeded $130bn, which proved the

community’s effectiveness in general.

At present, a Customs Union is being established within the EAEC

by Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. It is assumed that the rest of the

EAEC members, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, will join the union when

their economies are ready.

The Customs Union Commission (a supranational body forming

the key directions of the countries’ customs policies) held its ﬁ rst

session on 4 February 2009. The session considered conceptual co-

operation conditions for the involved countries’ customs services in

the single customs area, discussed speciﬁ c matters related to indirect

taxation and decided to speed up the formation of the Single Cus-

toms Tariff (SCT). It is expected that the SCT will be fully formed

in 2009.

It should be noted that the members of the customs alliance have

already agreed on the single customs tariff for 4,000 goods. The union

will become an important factor for developing mutual trade among

the EAEC countries and for establishing the Single Economic Space

in the future.

The community constantly focuses on resolving problems of pov-

erty, migration, energy and water usage, and using the community’s

transit potential.

The adoption of a blueprint for forming the community’s single

transport space is also important for boosting integration between

EAEC member states. The implementation of this document will

help member states coordinate customs and tariff policy in the

transport sphere, develop new corridors and modernise infra-

structure.

It is no secret that a number of serious problems, such as poorly

developed transport systems, obsolete infrastructure and the lack of

modern logistics centres, are preventing community members from

boosting cooperation between them.

As a result, it is becoming important for EAEC countries to conduct

a coordinated policy to improve interaction between their transport

systems, increase freight and passenger trafﬁ c (taking into account

market demand) and develop their transit potential.

In this regard, the Western Europe-Western China transport route

is a promising project. This corridor is important because it will open

transit routes not only to Russia, China and Europe but also to South

Asian countries via Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The construction of the second line of the Volga-Don canal is also

very signiﬁ cant. This project will give the community’s members

better access to the Black and Mediterranean Seas and further to the

open ocean. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has repeatedly

stressed the urgency of enabling these routes [63].

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The agenda also includes issues relating to cooperation in the

energy sphere. In this context, the member states have achieved a

reasonable amount. Joint construction of hydropower stations is under

way in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Customs procedures for interstate

power supplies have been simpliﬁ ed. Energy departments are imple-

menting a blueprint which will shape a common energy resources

market but there is still a lot of work to be done.

Some of the community’s regions still suffer from energy short-

ages, so it is becoming more important than ever before for the EAEC

to jointly construct additional power generating facilities, improve

the power grid and adopt up-to-date energy technologies.

Cooperation between EAEC countries in the water sector also

remains a current issue as mechanisms for mutual water and fuel

supplies are inefﬁ cient. To this end, Kazakhstan has repeatedly pro-

posed the creation of an International Water and Energy Consortium

that would improve cooperation between these countries in the water

sector. However, this project is still under consideration.

Uzbekistan’s withdrawal from the EAEC has aggravated this

problem. This country is also interested in the efﬁ cient use of water

and energy resources. However, despite the current situation, it is

reasonable for Uzbekistan to take a constructive part in quadrilateral

water talks. This will allow the countries to reach a compromise on

the problem.

It should also be stressed that the EAEC countries are paying sig-

niﬁ cant attention to cooperation in the social sector. The community

has adopted a number of programmes to ensure decent living condi-

tions for the 206 million people inhabiting the member countries.

In particular, the Ten Simple Steps towards Ordinary People pro-

gramme [64, pp 15-16], which was proposed by Kazakhstan, is being

implemented. Its basic goals are to develop the community’s social

aspects and create conditions for the member countries’ citizens to

move freely across the countries and choose places of permanent or

temporary residence, to be employed, to receive education and sub-

scribe to newspapers and magazines in any EAEC country.

“Ordinary” people, who remember the USSR, may ﬁ nd many

provisions of this statement strange. But one should bear in mind that

we became citizens of different sovereign countries in 1991. And it

took quite difﬁ cult decisions and a number of interstate agreements

to make each of these “simple steps”. Today, the EAEC is continuing

to implement these projects, which will make it possible to receive

real returns from cooperation.

Migration is now becoming increasingly important. The global

ﬁ nancial crisis, a slowdown in industry and a freeze in the construc-

tion sector have had a negative impact on the labour market and the

state of migrants in EAEC countries. Therefore, this problem needs a

comprehensive solution by migration departments, employers, insur-

ance and other relevant organisations.

The EAEC governments need to take urgent measures in this area

and develop coordinated approaches to stabilise the situation in their

domestic labour markets and create additional jobs. The deteriora-

tion in the state of the migrant labour market always poses a threat to

stability in the region. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has

repeatedly stressed the need for the community members to adopt a

coordinated policy in this sphere.

Signiﬁ cant attention is also being paid to the expansion of ties in

the healthcare sector. It is necessary to boost cooperation between

research institutes and medical centres across the EAEC. The coun-

tries need to create joint health resorts and medical clusters, which

will signiﬁ cantly help develop human resources in the member

countries.

Joint innovative projects are also one of the most key areas of

integration within the EAEC. The EAEC Interstate Council de-

cided at a session on 4 February 2009 to create a centre for new

technologies, which would help boost the competitive advantages

of the member states, and modernise and diversify their national

economies.

It is expected that joint scientiﬁ c and technical programmes will

be implemented at this centre. In 2008, the community members

drafted the Innovative Biotechnologies intergovernmental programme.

The programme will help the countries use the latest high-efﬁ ciency

technologies to produce competitive bio products for medicine, ag-

riculture and environmental protection.

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On Kazakhstan’s initiative, the Eurasian Economic Club of Sci-

entists was established to unite scientiﬁ c forces and contribute to the

community’s development.

The creation of a Union of Central Asian States, which was ﬁ rst

proposed by Kazakhstan in February 2005, will also promote inte-

gration within the EAEC. Central Asian countries have signiﬁ cant

potential for further integration in the real sector of economy and to

expand cooperation in the cultural and humanitarian spheres. The

union’s establishment would be an important move towards this and,

subsequently, ensure stability and security in the region [65, p. 47]

We believe the idea of the Union of the Central Asian States does

not contradict other integration associations in the post-Soviet area,

for example, the Eurasian Economic Community. On the contrary, if

the idea is successful, the union could become the EAEC’s southern

bloc and give a powerful impetus to integration processes within the

community and the Single Economic Space in the future.

Thus, Kazakhstan is conducting an active foreign policy. The

realisation of our country’s initiatives will become a key factor for

strengthening stability and security in the region, developing good

neighbourly relations and mutually beneﬁ cial cooperation, which is

very relevant considering the present global situation.

The EAEC countries’ coordinated economic policy, the formation

of the Customs Union and the successful implementation of joint

scientiﬁ c and technical programmes will help the sustainable devel-

opment of the community’s member states. At present, the EAEC is

an effective regional bloc and a driving force of integration in the

post-Soviet space.

3.16. Kazakhstan and the CICA

The Central Asian countries’ integration into the global community

made it necessary to elaborate on new measures to promote the Asian

subcontinent’s sustainable development. Asian countries, a number

of which have quite complicated relations with each other, bear the

weight of historical problems caused mainly by their colonial past and

modern ethnic, religious, economic and political disagreements.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed the convening

of a Conference on Interaction and Conﬁ dence-Building Measures

in Asia (CICA) at the UN on 5 October 1992 and 20 Asian countries

supported the idea and joined the process. Eight more countries and

three international organisations became observers.

Initially the conference was designed as an Asian equivalent of the

OSCE, however, some CICA members have not only contradictory but

also conﬂ icting relations with each other. In promoting the CICA, the

Kazakh authorities have always referred to the fact that Kazakhstan, as

a young state, does not have disagreements with any Asian country and,

therefore, our country initiated this regional proposal and suggested that

its meeting point and headquarters be located in Kazakhstan.

Undoubtedly, the CICA, designed to pursue a long-term and

laborious task, must closely cooperate with other Asian regional

organisations. In this context, the organisation is a pre-emptive step

to create a comprehensive security system in Asia.

Asia is an extremely mosaic continent with a big variety of politi-

cal, economic, ethnic, cultural and civilisation differences. To fulﬁ l

this task, it is necessary to ﬁ nd a common platform from which to

build a functional security system for the whole region.

At present, the world is following the path of regional cooperation.

The examples of efﬁ cient economic cooperation in North America

(NAFTA), Europe (EU) and Southeast Asia (ASEAN) prove integra-

tion bodies’ powerful positive inﬂ uence on the creation of regional

security systems.

Asia is currently very fragmented geopolitically but the idea of

the CICA is designed for the future. It is necessary to start by creating

effective mechanisms for the conference’s functioning.

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Countries like China, Japan, India, Iran and Turkey and regional

alliances, such as the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the

League of Arab States, ASEAN and others, play a special role in

ensuring security in Asia. Mutual interests and economic efﬁ ciency

could become a fundamental basis for creating the Asian security

system.

During the second half of the 20

century, a number of countries,

including the former USSR, proposed the creation of a common

security system in Asia. But the idea failed due to a number of

reasons.

Some of those initiatives were excessively comprehensive, which

caused them to remain mainly declarative, and some did not have the

“cross-cutting” issues capable of involving all participants.

Some initiatives failed because of quite severe conditions for their

implementation, for which conﬂ icting sides, primarily, and other coun-

tries with various political and economic systems were not ready.

Others failed because of rivalry between global powers, further

aggravated by global ideological confrontation.

At present, there is no real global ideological confrontation; the

bipolar system of international relations has broken down. Therefore,

part of the aforementioned problems will not have a negative impact

on the implementation of the CICA.

The Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between CICA

Member States, signed by the ministers of foreign affairs on 14 Sep-

tember 1999, does not have an imperative approach, which may have

made a number of provisions simply declarative. At the same time,

considering the composition of the conference, it was unlikely that

there would be a different result.

Thus, the organisation’s basic goals were to expand the areas of

common interests among the countries with various foreign policies

and resolve problems affecting all Asian countries.

During working meetings, Kazakh ofﬁ cials proposed a number of

new provisions, which Astana believed would boost the bloc. One of

the problems encountered in drafting joint documents was the par-

ticipants’ diverse visions of resolving issues or the lack of common

interests among some countries.

To resolve this task, the organisation started drafting a catalogue

of conﬁ dence-building measures. The catalogue was meant to give

participants a chance to choose and concentrate on a wide range of

urgent issues and problems. Participating states are entitled to choose

what is more important for them to solve at present. These include

issues related to conﬁ dence-building measures in the military and

political, economic, environmental and humanitarian areas, as well

as the ﬁ ght against new challenges and threats.

Ten years of Kazakhstan’s efforts to implement the idea resulted

in the conference’s ﬁ rst summit of heads of state and government in

Almaty on 4 June 2002. The Kazakh leadership’s foreign visits, special

working group’s regular work, special envoys’ missions and meetings

of diplomats and experts have all been directed towards boosting the

CICA process since its establishment in 1992.

The summit participants signed the Almaty Act and issued the

Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting Dialogue

among Civilisations.

Astana believes that it will be useful and important for the confer-

ence to use the resources of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Kazakh President

Nursultan Nazarbayev said that “much has already been done as part

of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and this organisation can

become an effective tool to ensure security and conﬁ dence across the

vast Asian continent” [66].

At the ﬁ rst summit, Kazakhstan suggested that the CICA observers,

including Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand, become

fully-ﬂ edged members. This would promote the organisation’s suc-

cessful work as a continental body.

The Almaty Act deﬁ nes the CICA as a forum for a dialogue,

consultations, decision-making and implementing measures based

on a consensus on problems regarding security in Asia. In addition,

participants announced that they “regard the CICA as a unique Asian

forum incorporating countries of diverse cultures and traditions, which

makes it one of the most important mechanisms for the promotion

of dialogue among civilisations and cultures. The CICA member

states intend comprehensively and actively to develop this dialogue,

218 219

Kazakhstan today

Chapter 3. Foreign Policy

taking into account the fact that Eurasia was not only the cradle of

some major world civilisations, but also served as a bridge between

them” [67].

The catalogue of conﬁ dence-building measures was adopted by

the foreign ministers of the participating countries on 22 October

2004. It is no less important that the CICA’s ideology is based on the

principle of cooperative security. The ideas of collective security with

a strict policy of bloc allegiance, which was characteristic of the two

world wars and during the Cold War, is no longer topical and reﬂ ect

the past epoch, the organisation’s ideologues believe.

In other words, cooperative security implies that participating

countries should not defend themselves from third parties but main-

tain peace and stability and resolve existing conﬂ icts and prevent

possible ones.

In particular, the declaration of principles says that “member

countries stress that any bilateral or multilateral military agreements

must not be directed against any third party and must not undermine

other states’ security interests” [68, p 20].

In December 2005, Almaty hosted a session of the special work-

ing group, which considered the catalogue of conﬁ dence-building

measures in three dimensions and new challenges and threats. In ad-

dition, a crucial issue was to create the conference’s secretariat and

its technical and ﬁ nancial coverage.

With its excessively diverse political, economical and cultural

nature, the Asian continent has always been and remains a bundle

of contradictions. However, the CICA is overcoming the inertia of

traditional approaches, destroying stereotypes and the scepticism of

observers and experts.

Naturally, it is too early to speak about a panacea for conﬂ icts and

contradictions in Asia. It is obvious that one should not expect from

the Almaty Act more than what the conference members have so far

agreed to. At present, the basic document is important enough and

could become a starting point for future talks.

The signing of the agreement on the CICA Secretariat, with its

headquarters in Almaty and Astana, at the second summit on 17 June

2006 made a signiﬁ cant contribution to the strengthening of the

conference as an institution. In addition, the summit appointed the

secretariat’s executive director.

The summit also approved the membership of Thailand and South

Korea, which joined the conference in 2004 and 2006 respectively.

The declaration of the conference’s second summit proclaimed 5

October CICA Day.

The summit’s ﬁ nal document expressed support for Asia’s candi-

dacy for the post of the UN secretary-general. It is remarkable that

South Korea was then represented by its Minister of Foreign Affairs

and Trade Ban Ki-moon, who was elected UN secretary-general in

early 2007. We hope that the CICA will become a strong cooperation

force in resolving threats to security in Asia like the OSCE in Europe,

Ban Ki-moon said [69].

At the 62

session of the UN General Assembly on 12 November

2007, the conference was granted observer status in the UN.

Kazakhstan regards the conference as a ground-breaking forum

of its kind for discussion and exchange of views. This forum’s basic

objective is to set up a constructive dialogue on security and conﬁ -

dence-building on the Asian continent.

In Asia, where the most formidable problems have intertwined into

a complicated web, it is difﬁ cult to reach consent over the whole range

of security issues. Therefore, the CICA participants must, ﬁ rst of all,

focus on the common, most current and controversial issues.

Taking this into account, the second summit’s declaration empha-

sised the conference’s role as a versatile mechanism for “developing

common approaches to security and cooperation matters based on a

consensus” [70].

Therefore, the establishment of the secretariat in Kazakhstan was

the basic result of the second summit. Astana will continue to chair

the conference until 2010, when the third summit is due.

The development of the CICA structures will make the organisation

speedy and timely and help draft a catalogue of conﬁ dence-building

measures and principles of cooperation security function. The CICA’s

organisational development involves the solution of issues relating

to funding, research and analytical support and the examination of

decisions adopted.