Kazakh president calls for creating OSCE counterpart in Asia

SHANGHAI, May 21 (Itar-Tass) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, at the first session of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia /CICA/ has suggested creating an Asian counterpart of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. "Expanding economic cooperation is one of the key guidelines for CICA's activity at present." Nazarbayev said. "Today, Asia is the locomotive of the world economy. Six Asian countries belong to the group of the world's 20 leading economies, with CICA states accounting for one-third of the world's Gross Domestic Product. The economic development of our region determines global trends in many ways." In his opinion, the time is ripe for creating an effective organization for security and development of Asia /OSDA/ on the CICA basis, which should make a healthy competition to the OSCE. "The West, in isolation from the East, without cooperation and mutual understanding or taking into account the eastern traditions and values cannot have sustainable development and aspire to monopoly in the search for truth," Nazarbayev said. The global crisis which began in the world six years ago is not gone. "It has been gathering momentum, engulfing one sphere after another: financial, economic, socio-political and cultural and spiritual. It is the crisis of all countries and the obsolete world development model. It is an all-civilization crisis which is systemic," the Kazakh leader said. "Therefore we, Asian states, have to address a peaceful development of the continent. The OSDA can become an important instrument in this process," Nazarbayev said urging CICA leaders not to postpone the issue. In his opinion, the existing G8 and G20 groups as well as other associations have failed to work out effective measures to overcome the negative consequences of the world economic crisis. Learn more on itar-tass.com