OSCE-CICA cooperation discussed in Washington
Within the visit the Kazakh Diplomat met with the U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference Rashad Hussain and the representatives of the U.S. expert community. Issues regarding the CICA and chairmanship of Kazakhstan in the OIC were discussed.
D. Bakishev participated also in a conference of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies on "Regional approaches to global problems: Prospects of cooperation between OSCE and CICA".
Leading American experts in security in Asia, Central Asia and Middle East expressed their views on the prospects of the CICA-OSCE cooperation.
The conference allowed continuing Kazakh-Turkish joint work on acquainting the U.S. side and its officials with the CICA, its activity in ensuring security on the Asian continent. "The foundation for this was laid due to the efforts and policy of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev", Bulent Aliriza, representative of Turkish chairmanship in the CICA said. He stressed that the project initiated by Kazakhstan disseminates the OSCE principle of "indivisibility of security" in Asia and created an effective platform for all-round discussion of the urgent issues of modernity. The U. S. experts backed this viewpoint and noted that in the past 20 years Kazakhstan had become a bridge between two systems of security - the OSCE in Europe and the CICA in Asia.
The Conference demonstrated the evolution of political thought in the U.S.A. regarding the importance of the CICA for strengthening security in Asia. The representatives of official Washington recognized that the U.S.A. had to get familiarized more with the CICA and expressed optimism on the prospects of cooperation within the conference in fight with terrorism, extremism and illegal drug trafficking.