Fifth Cica Summit And India

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The fifth Summit meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, commonly called as CICA, was held at Tajikistan last weekend. The First President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev is considered as the Founder of CICA as he had proposed the idea of CICA in his United Nations General Assembly speech in 1992. The Secretariat of CICA was established in 2006 and it is located at Astana, which is now known as Nursultan – the capital of Kazakhstan. CICA has more than 30 members from Asia and various international organizations are also represented as observers in the forum. So far, Kazakhstan, Turkey, China and Tajikistan have held the chairmanship of the organization. 


The first CICA Summit was held in 2002 at Almaty, Kazakhstan, where its charter was adopted, which is also known as Almaty Act. The then Prime Minister of India, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had participated in the first summit. India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas represented the country at the second summit in 2006 at Almaty. The former Commerce & Industry Minister of India, attended the third Summit at Istanbul in June 2010, as Prime Minister’s Special Envoy. The fourth summit was held at Shanghai, China, in May 2014. It was organized soon after the parliamentary elections in India in that year, and a senior of the Ministry of External Affairs represented the country.

The CICA forum of Asia is aimed at providing enhanced cooperation and promotion of stability, security and peace across the continent and beyond. It endeavours to move in a phased manner towards a unified structure in Asia for collective security. In order to move in this direction, CICA has adopted a ‘Catalogue of confidence building measures’. The confidence building measures have been divided into five broad categories: fight against new challenges and threats; economy; environment; human area, and military-political dimension. India has been the co-coordinator of in the fields of confidence building measures, transport, and in the area of energy security.

CICA summit is usually held after every four years. The theme of the fifth Summit in Tajikistan was “Shared Vision for a Secure and More Prosperous CICA Region”. India was represented by External Affairs Minister Dr. Subramaniam Jaishankar. It was the first visit of the new Minister to the Central Asian region. 

India has been actively participating in various activities undertaken by CICA. New Delhi believes that CICA should continue to develop in a step-by-step manner, rooted in Asian realities and requirements. Addressing the fifth Summit, Foreign Minister Dr. Jaishankar underlined that 21st century is being considered as an Asian century and CICA can play a constructive role in promoting peace, security and development. He said that terrorism is the ‘gravest threat’ faced in Asia today and urged not to equate terrorists and the victims. On the developments in Afghanistan Dr. Jaishankar said that India supports an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned national peace and reconciliation process.

The Indian Minister added that lack of energy security has emerged as a key developmental challenge. Dialogue between consumers and producers can help creating stable energy market. It may be noted that Asia is the home to the world’s top energy producers as well as consumers. India is also contributing in the field of renewable energy and the Minister invited CICA members who have not yet joined the International Solar Alliance (ISA) to join the initiative. The Alliance has its headquarter at Gurugram, near Delhi.

The declaration adopted by the fifth CICA summit highlighted the concerns raised by India, including on terrorism. It expressed ‘deep concern on the security threat posed by extremism and terrorism in all forms and manifestations.’ It also called upon states to devise a comprehensive strategy to combat terrorism by eliminating conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, countering misuse of the internet for terrorist purposes and dismantling terrorist shelters. The summit urged greater economic and cultural cooperation, and improvement in connectivity for increasing trade and transit. The sixth CICA summit will be held in 2022.

Script: Dr. Athar Zafar, Strategic Analyst On Central Asia

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