"The initiative of the new Silk Road, once fully implemented, will have considerable influence on future development of CICA," said CICA Executive Director Gong Jianwei during an exclusive interview with People's Daily Online in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is a multi-national forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.

CICA Secretariat, the administrative body of CICA is located in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The Secretariat comprises Executive Director nominated by the Chairing country and Deputy Executive Director and Professional Personnel seconded by the Member States. China carried the fourth chairmanship of CICA followed by Turkistan of the third and Kazakhstan of the first two. Here are the questions and answers for the exclusive interview.

Q (Question): As far as you know, how does the Silk Road influence future development of CICA? In what aspects?

A (Answer): The initiative of the new Silk Road, once fully implemented, will have considerable influence on future development of CICA. As you are aware, the new Silk Road will be an economic corridor linking China, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey with other countries in the region. The Silk Road will be a strategic regional thoroughfare that will connect Pacific Ocean to Baltic Sea and will gradually create a network of transportation and economic corridor that will connect Eastern, Western and Southern Asia. It will have an unparalleled market of over three billion people and will facilitate trade and investment and will remove barriers. All the countries that are going to be benefitted from the Silk Road are members of CICA. Besides connectivity and economic development, it will also promote tourism and facilitate people-to-people contacts among CICA members creating better understanding and promoting global peace and security. All these factors will have considerable positive influence on future development of CICA.

Q: As we know, President Nazarbayev was awarded the Silk Road Peace Prize during CICA Summit of Shanghai in May. President Xi Jinping spoke highly of President Nazarbayev who made huge contribution to the development of the Silk Road. What do you think of the relationship between CICA and the countries along the Silk Road? What kind of benefits will CICA bring to the Silk Road Economic Belt?

A: As you would be aware, it was President Nazarbayev who initiated the proposal to convene CICA during his address to the 47th Session of the UN General Assembly in 1992. His proposal was welcomed by many of the Asian countries, including the People’s Republic of China. For next seven years, President Nazarbayev and Kazakh diplomats worked closely with leaders and diplomats of Asian countries to make CICA a reality. The First meeting of CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in September 1999 adopting the Declaration on the Principles Guiding Relations among the CICA Member States, which became the stepping stone towards future evolution of the CICA process. President Nazarbayev was, therefore, the real founder of CICA and his contribution is recognised by all the CICA Member States. In the same spirit of peaceful economic and social development of the region, President Nazarbayev is making valuable contributions to development of the Silk Road.

As regards the relationship between CICA and the countries along the Silk Road, I have already mentioned that all the countries along the Silk Road, as well as the countries that are proposed to be linked with the Silk Road, are members of CICA. While all these countries are already linked through the thread of CICA, Silk Road will make that link stronger.

On the question of what kind of benefits will CICA bring to the development of the Silk Road, I would like to mention that the most important pre-requisite for a project of the magnitude of the Silk Road is mutual trust among the participating countries and prevalence of an environment of peace, security and stability in the region.

Through the medium of CICA, countries in the region are trying to enhance trust and cooperation by elaborating multilateral approaches to peace with the objective of developing a common and invisible area of security. In contemporary world, comprehensive security does not emanate only from cooperation in military and political arena. Cooperation in addressing new threats and challenges like terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and trans-border crime; as well as in economic, environmental, human and cultural arena is equally important in achieving comprehensive security. CICA is implementing confidence building measures in all these areas for achieving the basic objective of peace, security and stability in Asia as enshrined in the founding document, Almaty Act. This is the benefit CICA will bring to the Silk Road.

Q: We know that you have been working in a few countries. What do you think is the difference between working in Kazakhstan and in other countries? Is there any difference in the way of how local people think of China? Any interesting stories you are willing to share with us?

A: Let me tell you at the outset that I have equally enjoyed working and living in all the countries to which I was assigned during my diplomatic career. Countries of my assignment became my second home. However, there is one basic difference between working in Kazakhstan and in other countries. In my previous assignments, I was, as Chinese ambassador, representing the People’s Republic of China whereas in my current assignment, I am, as Executive director, representing twenty six Member States of CICA. It will be my endeavour to work towards further promoting the CICA process with cooperation and support of all the Member States.

China and Kazakhstan share long history and friendly relations. People of Kazakhstan view China as a friendly neighbour with which they are enjoying fully strategic partnership. We share a long peaceful border and are having excellent cooperation in all the fields. At personal level, I found Kazakh people to be friendly, generous and extremely helpful.

I have been here for only two months. If you want to know some interesting stories, I think the fact that I had to change my role in the diplomatic service, which is very different from my previous work, and is one of the most interesting stories.

Q: Does CICA have any plans or expected achievement during the Chairmanship of China?

A: It will be the endeavour of the Chinese Chairmanship to carry the CICA process forward in close cooperation with all the Member States and the International Organisations with which CICA has institutional level relationship. President Xi Jinping presented a new Asian Security Concept at the Fourth CICA Summit in Shanghai.

The new security concept encompasses the four basic principles of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. The concept espouses that countries should recognise and respect each other’s security concerns; and cooperate in addressing both, the symptoms and root causes of common security challenges like terrorism.

Since there is undeniable linkage between development and security, countries should adopt a coordinated approach towards economic development to ensure sustainable security. We are hopeful that all CICA Member States will work together to make the new security concept a reality during the Chinese Chairmanship by enhancing implementation of confidence building measures in all dimensions. Chinese Chairmanship will work closely with previous Turkish and Kazakh Chairmanships to further enhance the profile of CICA in international arena.