Uzbek President delivers a Speech at IV CICA Summit in Shanghai

     President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov arrived in China to attend the meeting of the IV Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.
     President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and President of China Xi Jinping held talks on May 20 in Shanghai at the residence of the head of China, the press service of the President of Uzbekistan reported. The sides highly appreciated the current state of relations between the two countries and stressed the importance of such meetings in determining the prospects for further development of cooperation.
     The President of our country noted the favorable dynamics in bilateral relations and expressed his sincere gratitude to his Chinese counterpart for the warm and cordial welcome.
     In turn, the head of China expressed his strong commitment to strengthening the strategic partnership with Uzbekistan. Xi Jinping stressed his willingness to continue to maintain close personal dialogue with the leader of Uzbekistan and "exert all efforts to achieve even greater objectives" in bilateral relations.
     China’s President called for closer contact between the two countries on regional and international issues. Noting that Uzbekistan is an important country in the region Xi Jinping offered to join forces with our country in order to build confidence between the countries of Asia, strengthen peace and stability, promoting economic and social development in the region.
     The two leaders exchanged their visions on topical regional and international issues.
     President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov delivered a speech at the IV Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), held in Shanghai, the press service of the President of Uzbekistan reports.
     CICA is an international Forum for strengthening cooperation to ensure peace, security and stability in Asia. The Meeting now unites 24 states. Nine countries and four international organizations are observers of the CICA.
     In his speech, the Head of our state noted that today there is hardly a country, society in the world, which wouldn’t be concerned with the worrying , unbalanced political and economic events taking place in the world, which in turn, affect the structure of international security.
     Islam Karimov drew participants' attention to the important aspect - the trust. According to the President of Uzbekistan, to reconcile the conflicting parties, in the first place it is necessary to make steps towards each other, in an effort to solve the problem between them. Otherwise, all negotiation process will turn into mutual blames, and this process can continue indefinitely. This, in turn, creates the so-called "frozen conflicts" in various regions of the world, the external forces pursuing their own far-reaching goals largely contribute to the widening and internationalization of them. However, no matter how the situation has been developing, the main cause of the conflict is the loss of mutual trust between the warring parties, which definitely needs to be restored and strengthened.
     Our Head of State is confident that the trust is the most important element and a prerequisite, without which it is practically impossible to achieve goals in any negotiation process to restore peace and stability, in the settlement of disputes and to promote mutual understanding and strengthening international cooperation. However, as evidenced by expert estimates, in the modern world and, above all, in international relations, mutual trust is decreasing.
     Current situation highlights these issues among the most urgent problems to be resolved. The main reasons for this emerging trend, many analysts see the rapid pace of the changing situation and the extent of globalization in the modern world, growing geopolitical competition for control over natural resources and communications, growing inequality in income distribution both within unstable countries, and between developed and developing countries .
     According to Islam Karimov, at present the ideology of radicalism, international terrorism, drug trafficking and violent extremism – these are not only problems of one country or region, but problems that do not have borders; they affect above all the younger generation. Our President stressed in this regard that it is an absolutely wrong approach to connect terrorism with Islam.
     Many experts see the causes of the growing tensions in weakening of coordinating role of international supranational governing institutions, primarily, of common approaches on strict observance of the basic norms of international law. Uzbekistan believes that restoration and strengthening of trust in interstate and international level, without any doubt, can become an essential pillar, the main obstacle to strengthening confrontations in the world, a reliable tool in ending the confrontation between rival centers of power, destabilize the situation in the troubled regions of the world.
     In this regard, the head of state emphasized that the proposals, contained in the speech of the President Xi Jinping to develop a new Concept of security in Asia, deserve a lot of attention and support. The main objectives of the Concept should be the realization of such fundamental principles as mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation. An important task is to overcome differences in ideology and approaches for social system and to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. Proposals for the progressive development and strengthening of regional economic cooperation, creating favorable conditions for trade and investment, joint implementation of major infrastructure projects in the transport and energy sectors, creating modern and high-tech production facilities also deserve support. According to the President of our country, such innovations in approaches are in high demand in the modern world.
     Uzbek president also spoke about his vision for the future development of neighboring Afghanistan. Today we can say with certainty that all those interested in resolving the Afghan crisis share one common view - the military option will not help to resolve the Afghan crisis. Islam Karimov in this context recalled that Uzbekistan pronounced this view in April 2008 at the NATO summit in Bucharest.
     The only reasonable way out is is to try to find a political solution to the problem, through peaceful negotiations and consensus between the warring parties, the formation of a government, in which all major national and ethnic groups in the country could be represented. The Uzbek leader expressed the hope that the second round of Presidential elections in Afghanistan will be held at the appropriate level, which will pave the way for the long-suffering people of Afghanistan to civilian life.
     Uzbekistan as neighboring country adheres to the fundamental policy of non-interference in its internal affairs, cooperation on a bilateral basis, support a government that the Afghans themselves elect.
     Our country considers it as counterproductive to set to the negotiating parties any preconditions that can not only delay the negotiations, but once again return to escalation of tensions and continuing confrontation, which cannot be allowed. As for the withdrawal of ISAF from Afghanistan, recent developments could entail the postponement of withdrawal scheduled for the end of 2014.
     The President stated that Uzbekistan is clearly aware what complex, intractable problems are facing the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. But only finding solution to these problems can justify all our efforts to improve relations between the states and eliminate the causes that create tension and conflicts.
     President Islam Karimov expressed confidence that the forthcoming presidency of the People's Republic of China in the CICA will contribute to solving the complex problems of security and stability in the wider region of Asia. The CICA Presidency goes to China until 2016.
     Hereon the visit of the President of Uzbekistan to China ended. The talks between the heads of Uzbekistan and China will surely give a new impetus to relationship between the two leaders and to the development of mutually fruitful cooperation between our countries in the spirit of strategic partnership.

UzReport 22.05.2014