BAKU: CICA declines to deal with settlement of Garabagh conflict

Azerbaijan Business Center
March 13 2010

CICA declines to deal with settlement of Armenia-Azerbaijan Garabagh conflict

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The two-day session of the special workgroup and
senior officials of the Conference on Interaction & Confidence
Building Measures in Asia (CICA) finished in Baku yesterday.

Following the session deputy foreign minister Nurlan Yemekbayev of
Kazakhstan claimed that earlier military political issues had not been
advanced within the CICA framework.

`Only now we are beginning gradually to touch them carefully with
taking into account interests of all parties. In this connection the
Organization is not involved and does not consider issues of its
participation in settlement of conflicts. As a country presiding in
the OSCE, Kazakhstan is ready to do its best for settlement of
long-drawn-out conflicts, including Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno
Garabagh conflict,’ Yemekbayev said.

Currently interest to Conference’s activity is growing. Vietnam is
likely to accede to the Organization at an upcoming June summit of the
CICA member states’ heads, and possibly one or two more countries as
well.

The CICA Summit will pass Political Declaration and Convention on
Legitimacy, Immunity and Preferential Benefit of CICA, and action
plans on transport corridors, information technologies, and
environment.

At the Summit presidency in the CICA will for the first time transfer
from Kazakhstan to Turkey.

The Summit will be conducted for the first time outside of Kazakhstan
(in Istanbul, Turkey, on 8 June).

CICA was initiated by Kazakhstan in 1992 and until 2007 was dealing
with creation of legal base. Today it is numbering 20 member countries
covering 90% of Asian territory.