KAZAKHSTAN PRAISES ENHANCED COOPERATION BETWEEN MUSLIM COUNTRIES
On June 28, Kazakhstan took over the chairmanship of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) from Tajikistan at a meeting of OIC foreign ministers in Astana. This 57-member state organization assembled representatives from 11 observer countries, the UN, the OSCE, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective Security Treaty Organization as well as high-level delegations from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia, China and others. One of the first steps taken by the new chairman was to propose renaming the Organization, which has become the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
In his welcoming address to the meeting’s participants, President Nursultan Nazarbayev outlined a number of suggestions aimed at strengthening the OIC’s capacity for coordinated action in various areas of interest, ranging from agricultural and technological cooperation to joint economic governance. Kazakhstan’s leader proposed to set up a Regional Fund for Food Security modeled after the UN FAO based in Rome. This new entity, to be headquartered in Astana, would be in charge of providing food assistance to OIC member countries affected by poor harvests, droughts and negative economic conditions. Another proposal formulated by the Kazakh President was to adopt an Action Plan for innovative and technological cooperation, the future implementation of which would be entrusted to the International Innovative Fund.
According to Nazarbayev, by 2030 OIC member states will be home to more than 2.2 billion people and house considerable productive capacities. This explains why their leaders are entitled to start playing a more important role in world economic affairs, namely via participation in G20 regular meetings. A relevant suggestion will be laid down in a letter addressed to the G20 Secretariat. A new way to enhance the OIC’s visibility and to promote the common values of its member states could be, as envisioned by Nazarbayev, to create the web-based platform e-ISLAM which might provide, in a comprehensive and affordable manner, all the necessary information about the Muslim religion and OIC-sponsored activities on religious issues.
A large chunk of Nazarbayev’s speech was dedicated to the necessity of overcoming the syndrome of suspiciousness towards Muslims presented by some Western scholars as fervent antagonists of the West. The concept of the “clash of civilizations”, first put forward by Samuel Huntington in 1992, needs to be replaced with a piece of fresh thinking on how to build an “alliance of civilizations” through an open and straightforward dialogue between the Muslim and Christian worlds. Nazarbayev reminded his listeners that in 2008 Astana hosted a Meeting of foreign ministers from Muslim and Western countries, with the aim to discuss the global agenda of peaceful coexistence between different religions and civilizations. Kazakhstan’s leader later invited the OIC Meeting’s participants to attend the Fourth Congress of world and traditional religions, which will take place in Astana next year.
The security dimension of the OIC is also expected to be strengthened. President Nazarbayev could not help mentioning Afghanistan, where his country’s commitments have recently been overturned by the no-vote of the Kazakh Senate rejecting a bill about providing limited military assistance to the ISAF contingent in Kabul. In a move to reassure his NATO allies about Kazakhstan’s readiness to continue to aid Afghanistan, be it on a bilateral or multilateral basis, Nazarbayev hinted at the possibility of creating a special working group in charge of Afghanistan’s rehabilitation. Another idea that surfaced at the Meeting was to launch official works towards the establishment of a nuclear-free area in the Middle East, with the possibility of its further extension to the whole world. Kazakhstan’s President also mentioned the need for OIC members to become engaged in a stronger cooperation in the fight against terrorism and extremism. This message was indirectly addressed to the representatives of two military blocs – the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which are considered the main shields against state-sponsored violence in Central Asia.
As far as economic cooperation is concerned, an Action Plan for Cooperation with Central Asia was solemnly adopted. This framework program is mainly focused on agriculture, transport and market access and is closely interlinked with the 2005 Ten-Year Program of Action approved at the Makkah Extraordinary Islamic Summit. The purpose of these two multilateral instruments will now be to promote intra-OIC trade up to the level of 20 percent. According to President Nazarbayev, the development of a regional financial center in Almaty will only serve the achievement of the OIC common objectives, as new patterns of banking activities based on Islamic finance are rapidly taking ground in Kazakhstan’s “southern capital”.
In his final words, President Nazarbayev called on all the OIC member states to support Kazakhstan’s candidacy to the EXPO 2017 competition which will be organized under the topic of sustainable energy and new ways of energy generation for the future.
