Speech of the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Mr. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu,

at the Third Summit of the Conference on
Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia

(Istanbul, 8 June 2010)

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great honor to address you on the occasion of the Third Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. I would like to extend my thanks for inviting me as the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which is the largest Pan-European organization uniting 47 European countries.

First of all, I would like to congratulate Kazakhstan for the successful completion of its Chairmanship of CICA. In conjunction with its current OSCE Chairmanship, Kazakhstan is demonstrating to Europe and the whole world the growing capacity of Asian countries to assume more and more international responsibilities.

In the today globalised world, security and stability of regions and continents are very much inter-related. Even though it is possible to draw a formal dividing line between the European and Asian continents, in reality such a dividing line does not exist. Take the Council of Europe as an example – formally a European organization, but its territory extends, thanks to our largest member, Russia, to the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

Or take Turkey – now Chairing CICA, it is at present negotiating its accession to the European Union. Therefore, Europe and Asia are united so closely, that we need to work together to ensure peace and prosperity in the Euro-Asian space.

By promoting the fundamental values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, the Council of Europe is helping re-enforce the democratic, or so-called, soft security on our continent. In my opinion, the area of soft security has a great potential for cooperation between the Council of Europe and CICA.

Peaceful co-existence of different cultures and religions, based on mutual respect, is for me one of the most important elements of this soft security and the strengthening of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue is one of the priorities of my presidency.

In this area, the Council of Europe has developed an important acquis and expertise. We are an important partner of the UN Alliance of Civilizations and our contribution to this initiative has been largely recognized at the recent Alliance of Civilizations meeting in Rio de Janeiro where I represented the Parliamentary Assembly.

In the era of globalization, eradicating racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and all kinds of similar phobia leading to discrimination and intolerance should be our common objective.

That is why I have accepted with great pleasure the invitation of the Kazakh OSCE Chairmanship to address the OSCE High-Level meeting on Tolerance and Non-Discrimination to be held at the end of this month in Astana.

Our cooperation can also be developed in areas such as combating terrorism and trafficking in human beings. The Council of Europe legal instruments, in particular the conventions on the prevention of terrorism and against trafficking in human beings, are open to non-member states and can represent an excellent basis for concrete cooperation.

With a view to strengthening relations with non-member states, the Assembly has created a new status – a partner for democracy. We have received the first official request from Morocco and I hope that the Parliament of Kazakhstan will become our first partner for democracy on the Asian continent.

In conclusion, I wish CICA every success in the future endeavors and my country, Turkey, a very successful Chairmanship. As in November this year Turkey will take over the Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, I am confident that our meetings will become more frequent in the future.

Thank you very much for your attention.