 Okay. Can everybody grab their chairs because we've squeezed for time. We're waiting for a third speaker. He is just arriving. Okay. What we had in mind for this panel was having listened to the ambassadors, the views of their representatives in Washington from Turkey, Kazakhstan and Lithuania. We're here from the ministries. Unfortunately, somebody could not come from the Lithuanian ministry, but nonetheless we had an eloquent explanation of the point of view in the previous panel. So we do have representatives from Turkey again, Kazakhstan again, and we also have somebody who's been following this issue very closely from within the Turkish foreign ministry. Now, I will not dwell too long because we are really squeezed with time on the distinguished backgrounds of our speakers, but I'll introduce each one very quickly. The first to my left will be, if I can find it on my list, is Ambassador Bülentulun, who is the CICA Task Force leader, as is described by the minister of foreign affairs in Turkey. Like I said, I will not dwell on the distinguished backgrounds, so I will move right on. You do have his background in the list as well. We're very pleased to have him here. We're also very pleased to have Ambassador Dullat Bakishev, who previously was the CICA executive director and still follows the CICA at the foreign ministry in Kazakhstan, along with the OIC. And our third speaker is Ambassador Eksin Ekçin, who's a special envoy of the president of the Republic of Turkey for European security. Again, his bio is in front of you, and I will, like I said, in the interest of saving time, I'll now proceed directly to Ambassador Tullan. Thank you very much. I first would like to thank the CSIS administration for organizing this meeting from our perspective. This is a very timely meeting to introduce the CICA and also the explored possibilities of cooperation between OSCE and CICA. And also my special thanks go to our ambassador in Washington, Ambassador Tan. We know that the Turkish embassy here in the cooperation with the Kazakh embassy, they are trying to introduce CICA, and it's very important for the CICA chairmanship, so in that respect, I would like to thank the Ambassador Tan and the Turkish embassy for their efforts. From my perspective, this is a timely gathering, and in fact, the topic is thought-provoking. The OSCE is a very well-known organization to the international community. It's a senior and regional organization dealing with the security and stability studies ranging from Vancouver to Vladivostok, and in that respect, OSCE is a well-known, I think, most of us. But I wonder if the same is true for CICA, Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia. It's rather a young and lesser-known organization or process dealing with the security and stability in Asia. While I say Asia, it's a little bit genetic term, because if we look at the members of CICA countries, it's ranging starting from the Turkey and also to Egypt, and it extends up until Korea. So maybe the word Asia is a little bit generic in that sense, because at the beginning of the first panel, the member countries were pronounced, and most, it's a diverse membership, and there are a number of countries which now 24 with the inclusion of Cambodia very recently. And in that sense, I should say that the CICA, in fact, a little bit sui generis organization. It was also mentioned by Ambassador Tan and also Ambassador Idrissoh that the CICA brings together the member countries, sometimes which have diametrically opposed views on certain issues. It was also mentioned that the Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India, Palestine, these are all members of CICA, and I should say that bringing all these countries around the same table is, in fact, by itself a confidence-building measure from my personal perspective. I have been dealing with the arms control issues approximately for 20 years. I served in the NATO, in OSCE, in capital dealing with the arms control issues for years, but I participated in a number of negotiations, including the CFE and all the other nuclear issues. But I should say that the negotiations in CICA is very interesting. Sometimes it's like a small UN. When you discuss something in OSCE or NATO, you have certain views. You predict the reactions of countries, but it's not possible to guess the reactions of the countries while discussing something in CICA. So from my perspective, that's why CICA is a unique organization, and it's in need of interest from the international community. When we took over the chainmanship of CICA, in the certain Turkish newspapers, there were headings. And I should say that one of the most interesting heading was a CICA unique group of dissimilars. So this is, in fact, an interesting reference to CICA. From my perspective, it's a true reflection of the nature of CICA. That's why I am mentioning that bringing all these countries together is, in fact, a really confidence-building measure for the international security and stability. The main idea behind the multilateralism and multinational forum is to set the joint agenda together. Multilateralism needs cooperation and coalition with other states, and in fact, cooperation and ideal coalition bring to the fore the notion of compromise. In that respect, maybe there is a need to very briefly refer to the basic documents of CICA. We have in the conference on interaction and confidence-building measures in energy. We have two basic documents. The first document is the 1999 Declaration on the Principles, Guiding Relations Between the CICA Members' Countries. States, and the second one is the Almaty Act of 2002. In these documents, the member states of CICA declare their commitments to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. You can see each and every document of the CICA very specific references to the UN Charter and the objectives of the UN. And also it refers to the territorial integrity of member states, peaceful settlement of disputes, disarmament, arms control, economic, social, cultural cooperation, human rights and fundamental freedoms. These are, in fact, all of them. If we look very closely to the objectives of CICA, all the notions we are using in CICA is very much similar to the Helsinki Decalokov, the CSC or OSCE. There are numerous references in the CICA documents to the notions which were put into practice by OSCE, like the Indivisibility of Security, like the Comprehensive Concept of Security, like the Cooperative Security. You can find out all these concepts in the OSCE documents. These are the basic notions of OSCE. And you can find out all these notions, all these concepts, also in the CICA documents. It's not a replica of OSCE, but the number of these concepts were both from OSCE. And these are international concepts, and it's not a coincidence that also CICA, as a younger and lesser known organization, also trying to develop measures concerning the security and stability in the CICA geography. Our motto in chainmanship, you know, the objective of the Turkish chainmanship, we took over the chainmanship from Kazakhstan for the years 2010-2012. And by the way, I should say that our Kazakh brothers in our usual terminology, they did a very good job, incredible job, to form an organization like CICA. And they steered this process and organization very effectively, in a very successful way, since its inception. And of course, we are grateful to Kazakhstan and the President Nazarbayev. This is not a lip service, by the way. They did a very good job. Thank you very much. Our motto for the Turkish chainmanship is, in fact, constructing cooperative security in Asia. This is a notion, I mean, the cooperative security. You can find out also in the OSCE documents. But using the word security in CICA is sometimes controversial. Because we use in CICA, we have a catalog of CBMs, we do not refer the confidence and security building measures. You cannot find the security in our measures. These are the confidence building measures. It's not CSBMs. These are the CBMs. Because of the fact that these certain issues are very sensitive among the CICA countries. So we use the word security in a little bit cautious way in CICA. That's why we refer our measures as the confidence building measures. These measures, in fact, like in the OSCE, in the tree, if I may say so, the baskets. The first one is the political military. We call this in the CICA as the military political. Second one is, in fact, the economic and also environmental issues. And the third one is the human and cultural. It's more or less like the OSCE. There is a basic document in CICA concerning this CBMs. The Ambassador Idiso, he has already mentioned this CBMs. This is a cooperative approach for the implementation of the CICA CBMs. This is a document which was adopted by CICA on 2007. This refers to the CBMs in this dimensions I have already mentioned. Military, political, economic, environment, and also the third one is the human. The up until now, in CICA, there was not a specific work on the military political confidence building measures. And for the last eight years, CICA made the doubt with the economic issues. And Ambassador Idiso also has mentioned that the cultural CBMs. From the perspective of the Turkish CICA chainmanship, it's not possible to only deal with the transnational threats and the new risks and challenges of the 21st century, only dealing with the certain issues like the border security transnational threats. From our perspective, the A of the alphabet for dealing with the security issues, in fact, the relations between the states. So this way or other way, we have to develop in CICA the certain issues concerning the military political measures. So the first priority for the Turkish chainmanship is to start the work on the military political issues. And I should inform this distinguished audience that we have already introduced this in CICA. And we are in the process of establishing a political military subgroup dealing with the specific CBMs in CICA. This is under silence procedure. And if I'm not wrong, this silence procedure will end on the 31st of March. And if this silence procedure will be observed by the member states, first time in CICA, we will have the subgroup on confidence political military confidence building measures. From our perspective, this is a very good start for CICA to deal with the more practical issues dealing with the political military issues. And we have already proposed a meeting of the CICA member countries chief of general staff within CICA. This is also a proposal from the Turkish chainmanship. We will discuss the details of the how we will bring together the chiefs of general staff or the defense, the representative of defense ministries in CICA. And this will be also a very interesting development for CICA. The second issue which we will deal actively in CICA is the human issues. Up until now, we have dealt with the cultural issues. Compile the ontologies. This is more cultural. This is a very interesting approach, of course, to deal with the cultural issues as the CBMs. But of course, from our perspective, from the perspective of the CICA chairmanship, we definitely need to deal with the human issues in CICA. So this also under discussion and the I should announce to this distinguished group that it's the intention of the Turkish chainmanship to invite the representatives of ODIR in OSCE, which the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, to make a present come and to make a presentation in one of the CICA meetings, which most probably we will have the senior officials committee meeting in Turkey in Antalya at the beginning of June. And under the responsibility of the Turkish chainmanship, we intend to invite the representative of ODIR to make a presentation. Just to listen their views and how we can deal with all these issues in CICA. This is maybe one of the aspects of the cooperation with the OSCE in the coming days. I don't want to take much of your time. We have a very limited time. I know it. The another interesting area that we could explore the cooperation with OSCE is, in fact, the issues concerning the environment. It's very interesting that in CICA, we have a specific CBMs for the environmental issues. This is a novelty for the security and stability studies. So the it's our intention also to establish a direct contact with the OSCE and to this time maybe we will give the our experience in the environmental issues because there are a number of countries in CICA they are directly affected by the environmental issues. And in CICA, Mongolia, if I'm not wrong, is the coordinator country for all these issues. This might be the another area, the possibility to explore the cooperation with OSCE. The last but not the least from my personal perspective, in fact, there is a definite need to have a direct relations between the secretariat of CICA and OSCE. And the Turkish chairmanship is in fact we could authorize the secretariat because the Russo procedure of CICA it gives such a responsibility and authority to the chairmanship. We could authorize the secretariat of CICA to get in touch with the OSCE secretariat and to establish not only a regular contact but also the regular consultations with OSCE. And it's our intention in the coming days to work on these possibilities and to explore the ways for the further cooperation. And in that respect I would like to refer to the OSCE document. We know that the OSCE has a number of advanced documents on the cooperation among the regional organizations. The OSCE has a document on the platform for cooperative security and also OSCE has the mastery strategy of 2003 concerning the relations with the other organizations. So we hope that the Lithuanian chair, if I'm not wrong, the Lithuanian representative is not in the room, but the Kazakhstan is now in the troika of the OSCE. So they are dealing with, they will deal with the Asian partners of cooperation in the context of OSCE. I'm sure that Kazakhstan will inform the OSCE troika in that respect and to establish more regular contacts and cooperation with OSCE. I should say that we are living in a world that it's not possible for the single organization to deal with everything. This is a straight jacket for the international community. Now we are talking about the security not only in Europe, not up until the Ural Mountains, but we are talking about the security of the Euro Asia and also the Europe Atlantic. This is really indivisibility of security and the certain concepts like the indivisibility of security, this should not be a lip service for the international community. Security is really linked to each other and the like the Europe, not only the certain parts of the Asia, but whole Asia needs such kind of cooperation because if you look the Asia there is no single organization covers all the security and stability issues. This includes Shanghai Cooperation Organization, it includes the Collective Security Organization, it even includes ASEAN. ASEAN is not dealing directly with the security issues including the ARF, I mean the Asian Regional Forum. So in that respect SICA has an advantage over the large membership and it has an advantage over more structured organization. So I don't want to take time and I thank you very much once again the CSIS for organizing such a meeting and if there are any questions at the end of the panel I would be delighted to answer these questions. Thank you very much. Thank you for that presentation. We'll move directly to Ambassador Bakishel, please. Thank you very much. First of all let me also join my colleagues in thanking the Center for Strategic and International Studies for convening this meeting and for warm hospitality and excellent arrangements. I also wish to thank ambassadors of Kazakhstan and Turkey for contributing to this forum. In fact Ambassador Idrisov contributed a lot to SICA's development in formative years in his different capacities including when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. In 1992 in his maiden speech to the UN General Assembly, Kazakhstan's President Mr. Nuslatan Nazarbayev proposed to convene SICA. Since then SICA has become a reality. It is now a very important multilateral instrument for dealing with Asian security problems. SICA's objectives and activities are diverse and complex. But to make our task easier I would like to dwell upon very important elements of SICA and to try to approach SICA from different sides. Of course Mr. Ambassador Toulon already made remarks on very key elements of SICA as basic documents and the essence of cooperative approach to security issues in Asia. SICA came to existence in a very interesting time when bipolar system collapsed. New countries in the Eurasian continent emerged and the new threats and the challenge became a headache for international and the regional community. So in this environment Asian states created SICA. It is a unique platform that offers equal opportunities to each and every Asian state to participate in the debate and decision making on a broad range of security problems. I would like to underline that apart from other activities SICA is playing as an instrument of, serves as an instrument of preventive diplomacy. As Ambassador Toulon already mentioned, SICA is a forum of dissimilar countries. Despite that important decisions are being made or already have been taken on wide range of issues including security area. In short we can say that SICA is a preventive diplomacy at work. In 2007 member states adopted very important document, cooperative approach to the implementation of SICA CBMs and I would like to confirm that its current chairman, Turkey is very serious on implementing elements of cooperative security and Turkey has necessary elements, necessary conceptual vision of how to implement security, cooperative security in Asia because it has experienced people, diplomats and it is showing leadership. One important element is flexibility of SICA. Any Asian country can become a member of SICA. It is generally open and inclusive and the member states are free to bring any issue to the table. One important fact is that as previous speakers underlined despite this diverse profile, member states have decided, agreed that this issue will not prevent SICA to do its job in addressing security issues in Asia. Another important element is voluntary participation of member states in activities. It is very convenient because that makes room for creative thinking, for creative energy to flow but however member states are expected to be active at least in one area. They may serve as coordinators or co-coordinators of certain CBMs or they can contribute without being a coordinator. They can contribute financially. Cooperation among Asian states towards promoting peace, security and stability is a key objective. According to Almaty Act, dialogue and consultations are necessary steps to develop the SICA as a forum. So another point I would like to make is the importance of consensus in decision making but of course consensus cannot be a purpose in itself but it is a very convenient way of decision making and addressing the existing issues. One interesting element added to SICA is one or two countries can together implement CBMs and share their experience through Secretariat with other members. We work on a step-by-step basis. It is crucial both for sustaining balance and achieving our objectives. As Ambassador Idrisov said, Kazakhstan indeed played important role in bringing Asian countries under the umbrella of SICA because one factor on Kazakhstan's side was beneficial factor with its abandoning of existing and functional nuclear arsenal. Kazakhstan also had been a catalyst for the creation of the nuclear free zone in Central Asia as well. All SICA meetings before 2007 were held in Kazakhstan and with Turkey taking the helm of SICA, now we can say that it is a truly regional security forum. Now Turkey is a chair and in this I would like to underline that member states expressed their full support with Turkey taking into consideration the fact that Turkey has been very valuable and active SICA member from the day one. We have Ambassador Chinnar Aldemir who is now serving as the Executive Director of SICA Secretariat. He has vast experience. He has served as also the Ambassador to Kazakhstan and I think he is the most suitable person to take the Secretariat forward. One important country to SICA is currently Afghanistan. Afghanistan is also a member country but also Afghanistan needs the most, the assistance of SICA member states. Recently SICA joined the Afghanistan core group. It is also a very important development for SICA and I think the decision was taken just last month. Member states provide assistance to Afghanistan bilaterally and multilaterally whenever need arises. So from now I would like to turn to SICA OEC cooperation because Afghanistan is also very key for OEC. So here I would like to also join others in expressing view that inspiration behind SICA came from OEC experience. Especially at the turn of 80s, 90s, there are obvious similarities and the connections between the SICA and the OEC. Striking similarities in the principles, guiding relationships and I would like to underline that in SICA, apart from other Asian, at least Asian organizations and groupings, SICA has principles, guiding relations. This is very important set of principles that makes our job easy. Whenever we deal with frictions among member states, it is easier to remind, to refer to the existing declaration on the principles. So OEC also is on board of SICA as an observer. In our view, closer interaction is beneficial for both SICA and OEC. Specific areas of mutual interest in our opinion may include military and the political aspects of security, fight against terrorism, conflict prevention, economy, environment and the cooperation in human dimension. Kazakhstan in its capacity as the chairman in office of OEC tried to contribute to this process. As Mr. Ambassador Idrisov already mentioned, last year SICA and the OEC had a very important ministerial event in Istanbul and they discussed Eurasian security issues and economic cooperation issues. Afghanistan requires attention of both forums. Cooperation in fight against the drug problem in its all aspects is also at the top of the agendas. In 2010, the SICA and the OEC had summit meetings in Istanbul and Astana respectively. One important outcome was the fact that member states of SICA and the OEC both supported collectively the process of stabilization of Afghanistan. It means that both sides, both parts of Eurasian continent supported Afghanistan in its work to stabilize the situation. So in 2010, effective measures had been taken by the chairman of the SICA and OEC in the context of the events in Kyrgyzstan. In Kazakhstan's case, Astana played a political role in stabilization of the country and provided emergency humanitarian assistance. Astana will continue to support Kyrgyzstan through both bilateral and multilateral agencies. In short, Kazakhstan's role in OEC and Turkey's ongoing chairmanship of SICA have added new dynamism and produced practical results. We in Astana think that two organizations or forums could cooperate on consensual issues like new threats and challenges, including terrorism, trafficking, of course, where it is appropriate. Since SICA region is mostly developing, I think in economic dimension in the language of OEC, we could try to cooperate in such areas as transport corridors, energy security and efficiency. Environment, of course, is a top priority for SICA as well. And lastly, I would like to dwell upon human dimension, because it is very important item for OEC, as we know. I would like to quote quotation from SICA's declaration on the principles, and I quote, respect for human rights and the fundamental freedoms of all individuals, irrespective of their race, sex and religion is important, I quote. So SICA is not only has already agreed principle here, but also has been dealing with different aspects of human dimension. We would like to see progress in inter-civilizational religious affairs. So in conclusion, let me say that we are interested in closer cooperation and Kazakhstan is ready to play its part in this. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ambassador Vakishev. And now we move directly to third speaker on this panel, Ambassador Yurkin. Thank you very much. I'd like also to thank the CSIS and Dr. Ali Riza for inviting me to such a gathering. In fact, I'd like to point out initially that I'm here to talk with the American, the U.S. State Department officials to talk about the candidacy, my candidacy for the OEC Secretary General's position. So by coincidence I'm here and I'm happy to be able to attend such an occasion. I attended the summit meeting of SICA where Kazakhstan transferred the chairmanship to Turkey. And then we have listened today all the previous speakers. They shed light on the structure of the SICA and its strengths and its future. Of course, SICA is at a very initial stage but there is a large room for cooperation with the OSCE. On this occasion I'd like to make a few brief remarks with regard to the OSCE and the potential cooperation between two organizations. In an increasingly challenging security environment, as Ambassador Tulun pointed out, the crisis confronted in today's world require more than ever local, national, regional and international cooperation. Regional organizations such as the OSCE are critical players, not only in the regional context but also in the global framework as laid out clearly in the Chapter 8 of the United Nations Charter. The OSCE is a well-placed to tackle many challenges in its region. Of course, the geographical proximity has advantages like shared history and cultural affinity. At this point I would like to underline the importance of improving the OSCE SICA cooperation, particularly in the Eurasian region. There is already a political framework for such an improved cooperation, namely the platform for cooperative security. It is an operational document adopted on the occasion of the OSCE summit meeting in Istanbul in 1999. The goal of the platform for cooperative security is to strengthen the mutually reinforcing nature of the relationship between those organizations and institutions concerned with the promotion of comprehensive security. The OSCE is a key forum for democracy and human rights, as well as for Europe, arms control and confidence building. It has also a significant role to play in preventing conflicts, management of crisis and post-conflict rehabilitation. All those fields are potential fields where the SICA will be instrumental. In that regards, SICA, the general expectation in Turkey and in the region and in the member countries is, will be increasingly an important regional organization. Kazakhstan should take the pride of the creation of such an organization. With its diverse membership, flexible structure and cooperative approach, it will definitely have a greater role to play in security and stability in the future. It does have a niche in the Eurasian security structure. The deteriorating security situation in Central Asia and particularly in Afghanistan, as indicated by Ambassador Bakishev, also justifies the pressing need for closer regional cooperation between the relevant organizations. Instability in Afghanistan affects all the countries in the region. Threats emanating from Afghanistan, including drugs, drug trafficking, extremist ideology, terrorism undermined both the security of bordering states and the OSCE region and beyond. Of course, not only the situation in Afghanistan, but the incidents, the crisis in Kyrgyzstan was also alarming, an alarming signal for those regional organizations last year. So I'd like to conclude my remarks by emphasizing the crucial importance of close, regular, close and regular working relations to be developed between the OSCE and SICA and Secretary General of the OSCE and Director of SICA in dealing with the issues of common concern. Thank you. Thank you, Ambassador Erchin. One of the more fascinating aspects of this exercise, certainly for me, and I would hope that for some of the people, or most of the people participating, is to learn more about not just each organization, but the extent to which that they can actually cooperate and listen to all three of you. I mean, there's plenty of potential, obviously, for developing this cooperation and also to refer back to what Ambassador Drissoff said. It is a subject that not too many people in Washington have been following closely. How much this cooperation is developing and how it ought to be of relevance and attention in Washington. So from that point of view, I think this was a good panel, as was the previous panel. If you don't have any burning questions, we'll go straight to the next panel as we're running late. You can certainly grab the speakers afterwards because we're going to be having a reception just outside as soon as the next panel is finished. But if anybody's got a question, at least one, we could take it. Otherwise, we'll just move on. Please, Margaret. Go ahead. Can you take the mic? The organization is quite unique in terms of membership. You have not only a lot of Asian countries, but also several Middle East, Middle Eastern countries. You have Palestine and Israel. You have Iran and Iraq. Afghanistan, you have from Asia and Jordan. Given the turmoil in the Middle East, given the problems there, as well as the ongoing military operations in Iraq, are there concrete plans of SICA, concrete initiatives that you can quote at this point? Thank you. I'm going to invite Ambassador Bakusha because I took notes while he was speaking, and he talked about the preventive diplomacy aspect of the effort. Now, in this case, we're not talking about preventive diplomacy. Maybe we even have ongoing crises. Would you like to pick that up? And then I might invite either. In my understanding, preventive diplomacy can be helpful to prevent. But when crisis is there, one can hope for real mechanisms if these mechanisms are there. But probably Mr. Ambassador Ben Tulum can address this issue, because as the chairman, Turkey has been pushing for trying to push more in military political dimension as well, maybe in some areas of new threats and challenge where Turkey is coordinated. Maybe there can be certain things that can serve as an answer. Thank you. Thank you. Ambassador Tulum. Thank you. I should say that the key word in SICA is the go step by step. It's not a easy task. I have already mentioned that all the questions might turn into a real question in a single meeting. So that's why I should say that especially in the human dimension, we should go step by step. That's why I referred to, for example, ODIR. I take your question not as the go into the details of the certain issues in Middle East that not only SICA, nobody can solve in a day or so. So what we could do in the human dimension, there is an a key in the other international organizations. For example, OSE, OSE, large experience and also a very important key in human issues. So what we thought as the current chair of SICA, to start from the beginning. For example, just to invite ODIR, which is a competent body of OSE, to deal with the democracy issues and also the human right issues, to just come and to make a presentation to the audience, which you mentioned number of countries. In the presence of all these countries, I mean the Iran on the other side, Israel, Turkey, Iraq, Bahrain, sitting together at the same around the same table and listen to the presentation by an representative of country. It's from our perspective a good start. So of course, we do not have ready solutions to each and every question, but we have to start from somewhere. So our perspective for the SICA chairmanship, in fact, from a little bit vision to action, we have a vision up until now. This is a process. Now there is a time for SICA to turn at least certain parts of our vision into action. We are at the beginning now, but we should remember that while we started the OSE process many, many years ago in 1973, it was a dream. So consider that the who can predict that the Kazakhstan in such a short period of time will become the chairman of OSE. So we should be patient. We should go step by step. It would be better not to complicate the issues and to go in this direction with the political will. Thank you. Thank you. Would that let me close this panel and we'll move directly to our next panel. My colleague Andy Kachins will take over from me and then we will proceed to the reception. Thank you all for speaking.