President Erdogan to attend Asia cooperation forum

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan

Turkish president will visit Tajikistan to attend an Asian regional forum which aims to improve regional cooperation and security, the country’s presidential communications director said on Friday.

The Fifth Summit of Heads of State of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) will be held on Saturday in Dushanbe and top-level politicians across the region -- including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping -- will attend the forum.

Fahrettin Altun, the presidential communications director, said the forum functioned as an effective mechanism where regional issues are discussed at the highest level.

Turkey made an effort to contribute to stability, peace, security and friendship all over the world by participating in various platforms within the frame of multilateral cooperation and dialogue, Altun added.

Erdogan is to leave later on Friday for the conference.

"During the summit to be held on the theme of 'Shared Vision for a Secure and More Prosperous CICA Region', conference activities on military-political, economic, humanitarian and environmental matters and on the topics of new challenges and threats will be discussed and future goals will be set," the Turkish Presidency said in a Twitter post.

The Turkish president will also hold bilateral talks with participating leaders, according to the presidency.

The presidents of Tajikistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka will also attend the forum.

In addition, senior-level officials from Bahrain, Vietnam, Egypt, Israel, India, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Cambodia, South Korea, Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Palestine, Thailand, Belarus, Indonesia, the U.S., Philippines, Malaysia, Ukraine and Japan will participate in the event.

The political experts see this year's summit differently, as the U.S. has recently included various Asian countries in its sanction list and repeatedly made threats to these countries.

Artyom Lukin, an International Relations scholar at Far Eastern Federal University in Russia, said the Asian summit bore a meaning of "Eurasianism" among the participant countries.

Noting that the core of Eurasianism was based on Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that contains eight members, he said the CICA was much more comprehensive with its 27 members and the forum would discuss cooperation and mutual interest in Eurasia.

Lukin went on to say that the forum will see the participation of rival countries such as Iran, Israel, Pakistan and India; while the U.S., the EU and Japan were not member countries.

He stressed that the forum could help justify Eurasia-centered initiatives, particularly China’s Belt and Road Project, expressing that China’s interest towards the CICA forum increased following the launch of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2013.

As countries like Tajikistan are dependent on China, it is not a coincidence that the CICA is today held there, he added.

The forum will be held on June 15-16 and a total of 650 foreign and national journalists were accredited to cover the forum. Wide security measures were taken in capital Dushanbe and streets in the city center are closed to traffic.

Established in 1992, CICA is an intergovernmental forum serving to enhance cooperation toward promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.

The bloc has 27 member states and more than 10 other countries and inter-governmental organizations have observer status.

* Writing by Ali Murat Alhas and Busra Nur Bilgic