From: Elina Karakulova (ekarakulova@sorosny.org)
Date: Tue Jul 08 2003 - 13:06:06 EDT
ASIAN SECURITY ORGANIZATION BEGINS DRAFTING CATALOG OF CONFIDENCE MEASURES
The members of the Conference on Cooperation and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CCCBMA) have sent diplomats to Almaty to begin drafting a catalog of confidence-building measures for the organization, khabar.kz reported on 7 July. The heads of state of the 16 CCCBMA members agreed in June 2002 to draft the catalog. According to the report, the catalog will include rules committing CCCBMA members to take steps to ensure security and resolve conflicts. Kazakh First Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Abuseitov was quoted as saying the military and political dimension of the document will be the most difficult, because among the confidence-building measures to be included are exchanges of military information and information on troop movements. The catalog will also include measures in the areas of culture, economics, and tourism. CCCBMA was the brainchild of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who envisioned it as a sort of Asian equivalent to the OSCE. The members are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, the Palestinian Autonomy, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. BB
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