 Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Stephen Flanagan, Senior Vice President here at CSIS and holder of the Henry Kissinger Chair, and it's a pleasure to welcome you this afternoon to our discussion of a regional approach to regional problems, the prospects for cooperation between the OSCE and CICA. So we have – time is rather limited for these panels, so I'm going to move rather quickly, and I'll introduce our speakers in just a moment, but just to award for those of you in Washington who aren't as familiar with CICA as you are with OSCE, and as just as a way to open our discussion. The CICA, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, is an organization that works to advance peace, security, and stability by building cooperation among its member states, which include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, China, Egypt, India, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Republic of Korea, Tunisia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Uzbekistan, Vietnam. So it's quite a ranging, as you can see, a broad-ranging group throughout Central, Southwest Asia and into East Asia. So achieving such peace and security is CSCI's commitment and encouraging also trade and economic cooperation among its members, undertaking other aspects of cooperation in combating illicit drug production, eliminating counter-embatting terrorism, collaboration on environmental issues, a whole range of other questions. So in many ways, approaching and similar to the various baskets, as those of you familiar with OSCE, recall of the economic, the security, and the political and human baskets of OSCE. And of course, the Republic of Turkey, which has been very gracious in sponsoring some of this event, and particularly the reception this evening, is the chair. And we have Ambassador Tan with us as our first speaker of the program. Secondly, of course, the OSCE remaining perhaps much better known here in Washington as an organization which has existed really as the conscious of Europe for almost over three decades now, enabling its 56 member countries from Europe, Central Asia, and North America to discuss a wide range of issues in the security and economic and political and human dimensions and also aspects of democracy promotion and increasingly playing a more active and operational role, certainly over the last 20 years in safeguarding democratic developments and trying to promote peaceful resolution of disputes and aspects of conflict prevention through its various missions. So just as a reminder of these two organizations and what are the prospects of cooperation, we're delighted to have three very senior and experienced diplomats today with us to discuss this as an opening bid of this agenda which you have before you. First of all, to my immediate left, Ambassador Anamik Tan, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to the United States who has held this position, of course, since just about celebrating his first anniversary, difficult year it's been, but he's done remarkably well as in previous tours here and of course he was previously Ambassador to Israel before this most recent assignment and also a number of other positions and postings both overseas and in Ankara. And you have his bio in your description. So as the current chair of the CICA, we're going to start with Ambassador Tan, then turn to Ambassador, then the former and the current chair of the OSCE, a chair in office of the OSCE country. So we'll first hear from the outgoing, the last just chair, Kazakhstan with Ambassador Eran Idrisov speaking in that capacity. He has served here as Ambassador since July of 2007, having previously served also as Ambassador to a number of countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway and a number of other senior positions in his ministry. And last but not least, we're very pleased that the representing the current chair in office, the Deputy Chief of Mission, Mr. Simones Satunas of Lithuania is here today to speak on some of their thinking about this issue as the representing the current chair in office. He has served here since July of last summer, having previously been also involved in the State Department as a special advisor on OSCE issues and serving as an advisor to President Adamkus back in Avinias. So we're very pleased, we don't have much time, but I'll turn the floor over to Ambassador Tan. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. I really appreciate all your remarks about Turkey's efforts, but I believe we should first acknowledge and thank you warmly about the support of CSIS to our efforts to make this organization which we think I think critically important in terms of the security issues in Central Asia to be known to American audiences. I believe for the second time I think our efforts were responded positively by our friends in CSIS and you are leading those efforts and I want to thank you first of all in your person to the institution as well and to our dear friend, Dr. Aleriza, I believe he's somewhere here, but anyway he has given us a lot of support and we appreciate his contributions. And also I want to thank to my colleagues and my dear friend, Erlan, and our dear friend from the present chair. Of course this issue, as you all know, is going to be, I mean as the efforts of Turkey is concerned, I think here in this town many of our colleagues from different agencies do have a little knowledge of what Sika has been doing and this, I think, panel discussion I hope will help and offer a sort of a medium for our distinguished friends, just audience to get to know what Sika is trying to achieve. Of course there will be high-level competent representatives both from the capitals of OSCE and Sika, chairmanship, as well as the secretariat of the two organizations and the State Department and other specialists to speak on particulars of this cooperation. Therefore I will limit my remarks to generic policy lines with a view to offering some ideas for thought. These are my by no means conventional. Since we are in early stages of the OSCE Sika concepts, I will thus attempt to, these are your thoughts to encourage discussions in this forthcoming panels. And ladies and gentlemen, Turkey assumed, as you all know, Sika chair for two years during the third Sika summit in Istanbul last summer. Our term focuses on how indivisible and cooperative security in Asia can be established. Primarily, of course, through dialogue. In doing so, I think we would like to expand our experiences in UN, OSCE, EU, and NATO to the Sika area. Another focus is to establish wider awareness and thus visibility to a newborn international organization with ambitious tasks and challenges. This event will hopefully serve addressing this objective as well. Sika is a new actor in the long row of international organizations molding member nations from across a diverse and vast area. Profiles of its members are indeed diverse on a multitude of variables. We have China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, Iraq on board under the same roof. At first glance, it might seem difficult to align these nations in common objectives. Bringing together these members, however, is an achievement in itself. Sika provides a more flexible framework to work on specific cooperation schemes among its members. Across the board, there are common issues with shared objectives and concerns. Afghanistan offers a good example in this regard. Drug trafficking is yet another concern for all members, which I believe is an issue that we can easily find cooperation frames. Moreover, there is considerable background work. Achievement and success stories about OSCE has built through its history. That will in turn be useful for a new larger geography represented by Sika. Sika is a young but vibrant and dynamic organization with 23 members. Iraq and Vietnam joined the body of nations as most recent members during the Istanbul summit. Once interested in the observer status, Cambodia's full membership is most recently approved on February 28. Bahrain and Philippines, on the other hand, gained observer status in October last year. Sika opens a window of opportunity with huge potential. It is up to the members to make use of it. This event will enable us to dig into those possibilities and the potential as to how we can utilize Sika in addressing the challenges of our times in a vast basin. In other words, we have embarked on a quest to find viable ways to Sika and OSCE to cooperate, exchange best practices and know-how that would be beneficial for Sika area and its nations. To just conclude, I would like to thank CSIS again for all its support and I would like to thank also all of you all for attending this event and listening to me. Thank you. Thank you very much Ambassador Tan. Ambassador Idrisaf as the bridge between OSCE and Sika, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you for reminding me the bridge role of Kazakhstan. Let me first of all join Ambassador Tan in thanking you, Dr. Flanagan and our friends in CSIS for attracting attention to Sika once again. I remember about half a year ago we had an event here and we had an initial discussion on Sika, what it is and how you have to eat it, what it is about and I'm very glad to be here today at another event where we have quite a powerful panel of experts. One can see on the program that we have quite a representative team of those who deal specifically with Sika issues in Kazakhstan, in Turkey and other places and today's topic for the event is quite symbolical. It's about Sika and OSCE, how they can bridge with each other. You know that Kazakhstan by its geography is or its geography has helped Kazakhstan to define its foreign policy priorities. We usually see that we are in the heart of Eurasia. We look to four winds of the world and one leg is in Asia and another leg is in Europe. Last year we had an excellent experience of our European taste, chairing the OSCE as one of the key security organizations in Europe but back in 1992 in early 90s we came up with this Sika idea, understanding that Asia as a huge part of the world deserves some institutions which will address the issues of common concern. Security, cooperation, partnership in different areas were in our minds and with this we came as an idea to build partnership within Asia. Of course we looked around and we saw Europe as an example of how countries can come together and work together on a host of issues and we offered this to our Asian partners. Earlier on of course that was met with some skepticism. Let me be frank with you. A young nation coming out of a black space called USSR comes with an idea of building unified Asia. That was of course taken with a polite diplomatic interest. Let me put it like that. But we persevered and we built our efforts. We tried to bring experience of other institutions, other players and as Ambassador Tan has told you Sika is gaining a momentum. If you think of Sika in statistical terms it is quite impressive. Sika is a membership of Sika which is 21, I understand now it's 22 right with Cambodia joining constitutes 90% of Asia's territory. 90%. Sika constitutes half of the global population of the world's population. Sika's economy combined, Sika's country's economy combined also gives you quite a handsome figure if you take into account particularly the Chinese growing role in global affairs. Therefore the role of Sika is increasing and with the world globalizing more and more there is a persistent need for different regional organizations to come together. This is being called upon from a legalistic point of view by the UN Charter. There is respective article in the Charter which calls for the regional cooperation integration and with this in mind we came up with the idea of Sika and tried to persevere with that building the membership. The first initial group comprised less than 10 members but we were very happy and very proud to get the support of big Asian nations like China, India. Russia was part of this global effort and slowly and slowly Sika has come into being and is coming of age as you would say. We had three summits during the last third summit Turkey has graciously and in a brotherly manner has supported Kazakhstan and has taken the chairmanship in its very efficient hands and we continue to work with as the outgoing previous chair with Turkey to build awareness of Sika and offer it as a very efficient and promising platform for making our world a better place to live. Of course one cannot say that Sika is just a replica of OEC. It cannot be such because the nature of security issues in Europe are a bit different you understand as compared to the nature of security issues in Asia. Europe as a geographic place is a bit different than Asia but what we observe is that there are definitely lots of issues which cross the borders and constitute common concern and one can easily also try to apply the three basket approach of OEC to Sika and actually in its practical dealings OEC Sika has started to go along the same way of thinking as people do in other regional structures. Sika came up with a number of new ideas for example the idea of the CBMs was expanded uniquely and the catalog of CBM measures in Sika which is a unique document in my understanding will bring you such novelties like CBMs in cultural areas for example cultural cooperation area or CBMs in the economic cooperation area trade and economy. These are new things even if it is applied to OEC. It is quite important that US we see some signs that the United States also tries to better understand what Sika is and we encourage this and this event which we have in CSS is a good example of this and is a good tool to promote further the interest of the United States towards Sika. We know the global role of the United States and we understand why Sika was on the periphery of US foreign policy interest. As a global power of course US has a host of priorities in foreign policy but with its spreading interest in Middle East in Asia in South Asia where you see that the United States wants to support the regional cooperation in South Asia through enhancing the cooperation organization of South Asian countries or ASEAN or US efforts in Afghanistan and on the other hand and when you look at Sika on the other hand and you see there Israel and Palestine sitting together in one organization Pakistan and India being founding members of the Sika. Afghanistan and Iran being the founding members of Sika and lastly Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan the countries which face a lot of challenges at the moment in their growth you will understand that Sika can constitute an important platform for promoting common interest in foreign policy area in international relations. Therefore we would welcome the opportunity or we would welcome the growing efforts by the United States not only in trying to understand what Sika is but viewing it as an important instrument common instrument in promoting the issues of common concern. OEC is an important tool last year when we had the OEC the Sika summit in Istanbul the first institutional effort was made through two chairs effort Turkey and Kazakhstan we put together a sideline event during the summit OEC Sika discussion panel that was a very useful effort we have identified the areas where both organizations can cooperate with each other and with our fresh memories of OEC chairmanship where we came with four T's motors transparency tolerance trust and tradition I think these four T's can be easily applied and efficiently applied to what we try to do within Sika therefore I would like to highlight the importance of involving major global actors in Sika efforts Asia is becoming a very important part of the world everyone tries to be visible now in Asia Pacific and to be visible in what's going on in Asia and Kazakhstan is very proud being a Eurasian country to be right in the center of two big continents and we'll be absolutely happy to continue to play our bridging role we are always happy to offer our experiences in OEC chairmanship to bring some value to what we try to do in Sika let me remind you also that this year Kazakhstan is the chair of OIC organizational Islamic conference we will also try to use our potential and our experience in bringing common priorities to the agenda and practical operations activities of OIC and with this panel I think we have to continue to stir the interest because when you stir something definitely some practical results are to come by and I'd like to thank all the participants who come from the capitals we have our special envoy ambassador at large for Sika issues ambassador Bakyshev I recognize my old friend ambassador of Turkey in Kazakhstan he is now ambassador executive secretary of the Sika secretariat ambassador al-Demir and many other friends and I'm very happy to be part of your discussion of course and I'm open to any questions you have thank you very much thank you very much well before we may have time for a few questions but let me now turn to Mr. Simonis representing the current CIO many thanks so first of all thank you CSAS for permanent and continuous attention to OIC and to regional security and cooperation for many thanks to Ambassador Tan and Ambassador Drizov for this event and for your countries which are both members of OIC and Sika and you are you are playing a permanent role in both organizations and especially last year was a year of the region it's very interesting to hear the growing numbers of the members in Sika and the impressive numbers of the of the people living in the region that's why we like Lithuania like OIC current share we really attach a special importance dots enhancing the OIC's cooperative approach and outreach to regional and sub-regional organizations that was said many times by our Minister for NFS Jubilis and just to highlight that even last year in Istanbul in the ministerial meeting of the security and economic cooperation in Eurasia he mentioned Sika being as a partner with strong vision and and capabilities so this brings us a solid ground and possibilities for cooperation and Willik Lithuania OIC chairmanship we have certain priorities I'm sure that you have heard about them but just to remind them and I think that many of them are bringing good possibilities for us to lay good ground for cooperation among Sika and OIC and one of our priorities the regional stability and protracted conflicts so we understand that this is a good area for both organizations to at least exchange the understanding how the protracted conflicts might be dealt discussions is important we also believe that the issue of conventional conventional arms control and confidence building and security what Ambassador Derisa was referring to is also very important and is a good area for cooperation we still believe that the undergoing negotiations and talks about the CFE treaty and about the Vienna document of 1999 is very important this year and we expect that some progress might be done this year so another very concrete area we we think it's it's a good area for cooperation it is transnational threats which we all were talking about and this is thinking about the follow-up of Astana summit we really attached like a chairmanship a special attention to the international threats and we believe that we could really strengthen coordination among OIC structures and other organizations to make maybe our mandates more more operative and more constructive especially let's say implementation in the concrete projects on there let's say border security or border management or transport so we will also seek close consultations and cooperations with the non OIC partners on various transnational threats issues which like we all know mostly originate outside the OIC area and the discussion on the Afghanistan and concrete projects around Afghanistan is really a very good area an important area for both organizations to cooperate that's why Lafina will be making like we see here some events and consultation and seminars on the let's say enhancing the cooperation on combating drug trafficking and and how we have better to work on the border controls not to not to impede the flow of goods but to increase the transparency and cooperation fighting the drug trafficking well just jumping we understand that security in current world is really multi-dimensional and like we see itself is looking at the security from all angles from the comprehensive point of view and not only conflict prevention on promotion but promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms is important and another area well if any is going to concentrate and is already concentrating is about the media freedom and safety of journalists so that's why we're still free a lot we see we can see a lot of threats and violence against media workers and so we like a chairman she will be making a big conference devoted to discuss the safety of journalists will which will be held in Vilnius and we believe that this is the area we could wear politicians media people and from both organizations might exchange their views jumping from to other dimensions what ambassador is was referring that we can find really a lot of areas in every OIC dimension for cooperation so let's say economic dimension it's really creation of the more safe and more efficient transport corridors especially in the region so this very good opportunity for us all exchange of the best practices we would say it's the best what we can look from the our cooperation then let's say energy security is another important issue well if any are like OEC chair we're putting a lot of emphasis on this and we believe that discussion on how on real ability and sustainability of the supply of energy sources especially in this world and especially now is very important so these just I would say couple highlights where we understand the way we can see for better corporations and opportunities for both organizations just to conclude we really appreciate that the executive director of secret security ambassador Demir is today with us thank you so much for traveling along way and we are really grateful that ambassador you have taken you have agreed to take part in the one of the pcs permanent council sessions this year lefina has invited you to share your ideas as well so it's I think another very good opportunity and just concluding ambassador chairman chairman azubulis the foreign minister of lefina really thanks kazakhstan and turkey inviting him last year in the sika summit when we were part of troika or see troika where we really cooperated well with kazakhstan especially so we believe that this is just the first invitation but we hope that we could go on cooperating with sika and looking for opportunities in very concrete areas so once again thank you so much this was a brief highlight of our lefina so you see chairmanship recently our minister for affairs who is a chair of OEC he was recently in this capital I could say that he and OEC got a really substantial attention to what we're trying to do and I think that we need just to continue to cooperate with sika as well so regional cooperation is on the lefina's chairmanship priorities with their concrete proposals so thank you so much well thank you mr satunas and thank you all for I think giving us a good outline of some of the issues that will be explored in the subsequent panels we started a little bit late um but uh my colleague valenta i reside said we could maybe have time for just a couple of quick questions if you have them but we really do need to move to the other panel of the first panel of the second full panel are there any questions from the floor though or before we proceed to ask the our our diplomatic our diplomatic panel we are another panel of a mix of experts and and diplomats but this is the the view from uh from the key governments involved okay well if uh if there aren't I want to just thank the panel as I said for giving us a good overview of these key issues that will now be explored in the next uh next few sessions and on behalf of our president john hammery who regrets he couldn't be here with you we wish you a successful conference and look forward to uh to hearing the results thank you thank you so you join me in in uh thanking also the the three ambassadors and the three diplomats for joining us today