Speech by President Emomali Rahmon at the Summit of the Heads of CICA State and Government

Distinguished Colleagues and Heads of Delegation,

Esteemed Participants of the Summit,

At the outset, I would like to thank the People’s Republic of China for their successful Chairmanship and the work they have done in a very important stage of CICA development.

Tajikistan during its Chairmanship in the Conference is of view that the primary task is to ensure comprehensive support to develop a constructive dialogue and full-fledged interaction between the member states through continued confidence building measures and promotion of prosperity and harmonized development of the entire Asian Region.

The vast region of Asia is currently faced with new challenges, in which historical destinies of peoples are closely intertwined in pursuit of economic expansion, joint sustainable development and progress.

Tajikistan highlights the importance of further promotion of peace, stability and security in Asia, deepening multifaceted cooperation and implementation of confidence building measures in political, economic, environmental and humanitarian areas within the CICA.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Significant changes have taken place in the CICA Region since its last Summit.

The growing scale of terrorism, extremism, transnational organized crime, illicit drug trafficking and cybercrime continue posing threat to international and regional security. Countering these threats requires from all member states of the Conference undertaking immediate joint measures.

Having experienced civil war in early 1990s, the people of Tajikistan understand the value of peace, stability and absolute necessity for its maintenance and strengthening.

In the last two years, in close cooperation with the UN and other international partners, Tajikistan hosted two important high-level conferences on strengthening international and regional cooperation in countering these global threats and sources of their financing. The objective from convening these conferences was to promote strengthened international and regional cooperation, identify effective methods of countering challenges and threats of the current time being.

Effective resistance to these challenges and threats to security urges implementing a set of measures aimed at improving social lives of our communities, reducing poverty and addressing unemployment.

We are seriously concerned with the difficult situation in neighboring Afghanistan. Taking effective measures and further coordination of efforts of the international community, including CICA member states in this area can providea tangible solution to the Afghan case.In this context, facilitation to engagement of Afghanistan into the process of regional integration within the five dimensions of the Conference can play an important role.

Strengthening economic cooperation is key in our engagement in the region’s sustainable growth. It is in our common interest to give full play to the region’s transit capacity through accelerated modernization and construction of new connectivity infrastructure facilities.

The environment and climate change are other important vectors of our cooperation.

Natural disasters annually cause enormous loss to our economies. With this regard, we propose to develop effective mechanisms of comprehensive support to countries suffering from natural disasters.

Given its geographic location specifics, Tajikistan, 93% of which is covered by mountains, also remains vulnerable to devastating consequences of natural disasters, which annually result in enormous material loss and human casualties.

During the last 40 years, more than 1000 glaciers vanished in our country, which in turn has negatively been affecting key segments of our national economy, including hydropower, agriculture, and industry.

Continued process of accelerated melting of glaciers negatively affects the water resources of Central Asia, more than 60% of which are accumulated in the territory of Tajikistan. It has been creating additional obstacles towards implementation of sustainable development goals.

Everybody is well aware that water resources are key component of socio-economic development and environmental recreation of Central Asian Region. With this regard, we can achieve sustainable development goals in the region only by ensuring judicious use of water resources, reducing their loss and preserving them for future generations.

Tajikistan proactively promotes global water agenda. A tour initiative, the UN General Assembly from 2003 to present proclaimed the International Year of Fresh water, the International Decade for Action “Water for Life” (2005-2015) and the International Year of Water Cooperation (2013).

Based on another initiative of Tajikistan, in December 2016 UN GA based on consensus adopted Resolution on International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development”, which was officially launched last year. Comprehensive practical measures within the new decade are called upon facilitating achievement of water related sustainable development goals. With this regard, we believe the participation of CICA member states in joint promotion and implementation of this decade is very important.

Dear Participants of the Summit,

Tajikistan, in the period of its Chairmanship, will facilitate promotion of cooperation on tourism and improvement of interaction between our countries in this area.In this context, we planned activities to broadly introduce representatives from CICA member states to cultural and historic heritage and abundant natural resources of Tajikistan, and create a platform to seek for new ways of cooperation in this sphere.

We hope that today’s gathering will make it possible for us to share experience accumulated during the years of interaction within the Conference and identify main directions of joint activities on confidence building, security and further promotion of CICA process.

It is my belief that the summit will provide additional impetus to achievement of common objectives and strengthening of mechanisms of multifaceted cooperation and greater interaction in addressing burning issues of CICA.

Thank you for your attention.