The Second CICA Summit held in Almaty on June 17, 2006, is attended by the presidents of Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, the Prime Minister of Thailand, and high-ranking representatives from Turkey, Israel, Mongolia, South Korea, India, Iran, Palestine, and Egypt. The summit also hosted representatives of all CICA Observer States and international organizations.

The main idea of the initiative is to create an effective and universal structure for dialogue on security issues in Asia. CICA, with 18 member countries, has already become a real force in contemporary international relations. For instance, in 2002, when relations between the new nuclear powers - India and Pakistan - were strained, the participation of their leaders in the First CICA Summit in Almaty contributed to relieve the tension in South Asia.

During 1993-98, a number of events were arranged for the purpose of elaborating the conceptual grounds for the CICA process. The main achievement of that period was reaching consensus on elaborating common approaches to the problems of security and cooperation among the countries of the Asian region.

On September 14, 1999 the first meeting of Foreign Ministers of CICA Member States was held in Almaty City, which was crowned by signing of the Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations Among CICA Member States. Thus, for the first time, a legal basis for establishing an Asian security system was created, with concrete activities, measures, and mechanisms of ensuring stability in the region.

The participants supported the development of the CICA process as a regional forum.

On June 4, 2002 the First CICA Summit was held in Almaty, which saw participation from the presidents of Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Pakistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan, the Prime Ministers of Azerbaijan and India, special representatives of Iran, Egypt, Palestine, and Israel, representatives of nine observer states and the leadership of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), United Nations and League of Arab States (LAS). At the summit, the Almaty Act and the CICA Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting Dialogue among Civilizations were signed.

The summit participants emphasized that the Almaty Act was a breakthrough document, which contained innovative norms and reflected the member states' approaches to enhancing security.

In particular, it relates to parallel application of the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) and settlement of disputes, elaboration of the CBMs Catalogue, priority for the elimination of WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction), creation of nuclear weapon free zones in Asia, adoption of obligations in the struggle against terrorism, separatism, drug trafficking, illegal arms trade and transnational crime.

The member states agreed to develop the CICA process as a forum for dialogue, consultations, decisions, and realization of CBMs on the issues of security in Asia, on the basis of consensus.

On October 22, 2004 the Second Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of CICA Member States took place. The adoption of the Catalogue of the CICA CBMs, the CICA Rules of Procedure and the Declaration were the major results of the event.

The importance of the Catalogue of the CICA CBMs cannot be overemphasized. For the first time in Asian history had such a comprehensive document providing for multilateral cooperation on a broad spectrum of stability and security issues appeared. The catalogue provides for CBMs along five major dimensions: 1) military and political, 2) combating new challenges and threats, 3) economic, 4) ecological, and 5) humanitarian.

On June 17, 2006 the Second CICA Summit was held in Almaty.

The summit was marked by the adoption of the all-around political document - the Declaration of the Second CICA Summit - as well as the Statute of the CICA Secretariat. The declaration reflects the general view of the member states on key problems of security and cooperation in Asia and all over the world, proposals of the member states on elaborating a universal approach to unresolved problems, and declares the necessity of practical realization of the CBMs, enshrined in the CICA Catalogue of CBMs of 2004, and the further development of the process.

The Statute of the CICA Secretariat laid down a legal basis for establishment and functioning of the permanent CICA Secretariat to ensure administrative, organizational, and technical support to the CICA meetings and other activities.

This year, considerable progress has been made in fulfillment of the main goal of the CICA. On the basis of the CBMs Catalogue of the CICA, a working document "Cooperative Approach for Implementation of the CICA CBMs" was drafted and this document was adopted at the regular meeting of the CICA Senior Official's Committee (SOC), held last March in Bangkok.

(China Daily 10/15/2007 page7)