CHAIRMAN’S CONCLUSION OF THE THIRD CICA SUMMIT
Istanbul, 8 June 2010
The Third Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) has been concluded with the adoption, by consensus, of a political declaration reflecting the common political will and vision of its Member States. Yet there were issues which it was unable to adopt despite the will of an overwhelming majority of Member States and which the Turkish Chairmanship is compelled to reflect as a Chairman’s conclusion.
Acting in line with our responsibility to address threats that might jeopardize regional and international peace and stability, all Member States, except one, expressed their grave concern and condemnation for the actions undertaken by the Israeli Defense Forces against international civilian flotilla transporting humanitarian aid material to Gaza Strip while they were in the international waters of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea in the early morning of 31st May 2010. All CICA Member States, except one, recognized these actions as blatant violations of Charter of the United Nations and international law and deeply deplored the resulting civilian casualties. In view of the importance of upholding accountability and preventing the recurrence of such actions, they supported the establishment of the independent international commission by the UN Secretary General to investigate into the incident in a credible, thorough and transparent manner, as called for by the Presidential Statement of the UN Security Council. In this context, they stressed the urgency of the lifting of the inhuman blockade on the Gaza Strip which has proved to be adversely counter-productive and destructive for regional peace and stability.
An overwhelming majority of the Member States of CICA also called for the establishment of a zone that is free from nuclear weapons in the Middle East and commended the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 2010 Review Conference’s endorsement of the Egyptian and Arab proposal to convene a Conference in 2012 that would be attended by all Middle Eastern States towards the attainment of that goal and call on Israel to accede to the NPT and to place all of its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards.
An overwhelming majority of the Member States of CICA equally called for the Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab Lands occupied in 1967, establishment of an independent Palestinian State with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital, as well as resolving the Palestinian refugee problem on the basis of relevant UN resolutions.
An overwhelming majority of the Member States of CICA welcomed and supported the establishment and enhancement of cooperation between CICA and the OIC as well as the OSCE.
