Statement by
His
Excellency Dr. Surakiart Sathirathai
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand,
at the 2nd CICA Ministerial
Meeting
Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building
Measures in Asia
Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan
22 October 2004
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Mr. Chairman,
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,
I wish first of all to express my sincere appreciation
to all CICA members for your support for Thailand
to become a new member of CICA. I also commend our host,
the Republic of Kazakhstan,
for the commitment in pushing forward the Conference on
Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia
or CICA. I also would like to congratulate you, Mr. Chairman,
in successfully arranging this very important Meeting. I
am honoured to represent Thailand as the
latest CICA member. Thailand
is proud to share CICA’s common vision and aspiration for
sustained peace and security in Asia
and the international community at large.
Mr. Chairman,
Asia is a continent of diversity in culture, economic and
socio-political aspects. Yet, no one can underestimate the
enormous wealth and assets of Asia.
Its people account for over 60 percent of the world’s population.
Asian international foreign reserves account for over 75
percent of the total international reserves of all developing
countries. Yet, we have failed to fully utilize Asia’s
indigenous and inner strengths in building mutual prosperity.
Some may say that diversity is a cause of weakness;
that it is a cause of mistrust; and that it is even a cause of
conflicts. But
in our view, it is definitely not so.
On the contrary, Thailand
looks at the heterogeneity of Asia
as the potential root of our strength not
weakness, our trust and confidence not mistrust,
and our peaceful co-existence not conflicts.
It is even
more so when considering how the world and, we, in Asia,
are facing with the new international strategic landscape
and the challenges of globalization. It is even more so
when considering how much collective effort is now needed
to build up confidence, and to enhance regional cooperation
as building blocks for partnership and effective multilateralism.
It is even more so when considering the need for the emergence
of a new Asia. That is
why we believe CICA is so timely.
CICA represents our joint efforts to strengthen a
culture of peace and tolerance within our diverse region
for peace and security. CICA represents the commitment of
its members to promote dialogues while building confidence
among each of us in our diverse continent. Thailand totally shares with CICA
its conceptual premises and its noble objectives. The diversity
and differences in Asia
shall not and must not serve as impediments but a great
source of our continent’s strength. Here, I wish to commend H.E. President
Nazarbayev for his far-sightedness in initiating CICA in
1992 and for his commitment in pushing forward this process.
I also share his view that confidence in each other in Asia
is a pre-requisite for economic, social and development
cooperation. And confidence building has so far been CICA’s
main contribution.
Both the Almaty Act and the Declaration on the Principles
Guiding Relations between the CICA Member-States as well
as the CICA Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting
Dialogue among Civilizations are testimony of the confidence, political will and commitment
of all members to forge coordinated positions on security
issues and settle the conflicts among the members peacefully
in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter.
Having participated at several expert and senior
official level meetings and the Summit in 2002, Thailand,
as CICA’s new member and the only member from South-east
Asia, looks forward to working with CICA, sharing our experiences
in regional cooperation in confidence building measures
and capacity building.
Mr. Chairman,
Thailand believes
in the effective functioning of the world’s multilateral
system. We believe in consolidating regional cooperation
and partnership at various levels to serve as building blocks
for effective multilateralism. We believe in stronger Asia
for the benefit of all Asians, the multilateral system and
the rest of the world. And we believe that all the intra
and inter sub-regional cooperation frameworks in Asia are
for the benefits of a stronger Asia.
In Southeast Asia, as
we move towards the realization of the ASEAN Community,
comprising 10 countries, Thailand has initiated the new
economic cooperation strategy to bridge the development
gaps that exist between the old ASEAN and the new ASEAN
members, the latter being our adjacent and immediate neighbours.
At the same time, we attach great importance to
bridging the gap between countries in South-east
Asia and our neighbours in South Asia, especially those
around the Bay of Bengal.
We strongly support the East Asia Community comprising ASEAN,
China, Japan,
and the Republic
of Korea.
And we initiated the new pan-Asia cooperation called the
Asia Cooperation Dialogue or the ACD, which was inaugurated
in Thailand
in June 2002, and the Third Ministerial Meeting was successfully
held in Qingdao,China,
this past year.
The objectives of CICA and those of
the ACD are to complement each other. The ACD, like CICA,
is to draw strength from Asia’s
diversity. With 26 participating countries from north to
south and from east to west of the Asian continent, including
several CICA members, the ACD continues to make progress
through annual ministerial dialogues and joint projects.
The ACD will create a cobweb of development network in 18
areas of functional cooperation with the coverage of the
entire geographical span of the Asian continent. In ACD,
the participation in these cooperation projects are voluntary,
based on each member’s comfort level, readiness and comparative
advantage. In this way, everyone has a sense of participation
and willingness while no one feels isolated or left behind.
This is how we recognize differences and how we could build
our strength based on diversity.
While the ACD can concentrate on development
agenda and CICA on security and confidence-building measures,
together, the ACD and CICA, with support from other sub-regional
frameworks of cooperation could finally, and sooner rather
than later, help bring about the ultimate of the emergence
of the new Asia. That is
an ‘Asian Community’.
Mr. Chairman,
Central in Thailand’s
foreign policy are the principles of “prosper thy neighbours”
and “looking always beyond Thailand”. Based
on these principles, as we are making effective economic
growth, we have reached out to make others prosperous also.
As we are trying to achieve sustainable development, we
have offered our help for others to accomplish their development
more sustainably. As we are stronger as a nation and as
an economy, we have made sure that our neighbourhood in
Asia and Asia as a continent
are also stronger in every aspect.
That is why Thailand believes that as the new and
the first ASEAN member of CICA, we will take a constructive
role, bridging and linking CICA with many of Asia’s intra
and inter sub-regional cooperation frameworks, such as ACMECS,
ASEAN, BIMSTEC, East Asian Community, and ACD, on the one
hand. We believe, on the other, that we can serve to bridge
and link CICA with inter-regional cooperation between Asia
and our external allies such as the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation or APEC, the Asia-Europe Meeting or ASEM and
the ASEAN Regional Forum or ARF.
With CICA and with ACD,
we are looking forward to the exciting future of a new Asia.
We are looking forward to the prosperous future for all
Asian peoples. We are looking forward to peace and understanding
based on the culture of peace and tolerance in Asia.
We are looking forward to succeeding in turning our diversity
into strength. And ultimately we are looking forward to
a stronger Asia for the benefits of all Asia
and the rest of the world.
Once again, Thailand wishes to convey our sincere appreciation
to the Republic
of Kazakhstan
for facilitating our membership.
The road ahead for a stronger Asia
and for a better world is within sight only if we have our
political resolve and commitment and translate them into
reality.
Thank you.
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