Nazarbayev proposes reorganizing CICA into OSCE rival

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said that the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) should be transformed into an effective Organization for Security and Development in Asia (OSDA), interfax.kz reports.

"[The OSDA] should provide healthy competition with the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe). The West, cut off from the East, cannot develop sustainably without mutual cooperation and mutual understanding, without taking into account the eastern traditions and values," Nazarbayev said at the fourth CICA summit in Shanghai (China) on Wednesday, according to his press office.

The global crisis that began six years ago still has not been resolved and is growing, covering not only the financial and economic spheres, but the socio-political and cultural-spiritual ones as well, Nazarbayev said.

"This is a common civilization crisis that is systemic. So we, the Asian countries, need to peacefully develop our continent on our own. The OSDA could become an important tool in this process," the Kazakh president said.

"I am urging the CICA leaders not to delay a resolution of this matter," he said.

Mutual trust, the basis of friendship, could become one of the key pillars of the future international organization, said the Kazakh leader.