350 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies N. 5 / 2015 integration, given the close relationship between growth and security.44 Referring to CICA as the most representative regional security forum, he proposed strengthening its role as a security dialogue and cooperation platform and, on that basis, exploring the establishment of a regional security cooperation architecture.45 On officially pre-siding over the Conference until 2016, he proposed that China’s leadership would implement these proposals, despite the difficulties in achieving them.46 CICA Member States. Source: The Diplomat. Perhaps more relevant than the proposal of a “New Concept of Asian Security” -in reality an evolution of the 1997 Chinese “New Concept of Asian Security”-,47 is 44 XI Jinping. “New Asian Security Concept for New Progress in Security Cooperation: Remarks at the Fourth Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Summit”. 45 CICA (www.s-cica.org), currently made up of 24 members, first emerged in 1992 at the initiative of Kazakhstan and held its first summit in 2002. 46 Besides its heterogeneity of cultures and disparity of interests, the group excludes Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, while Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and the United States only have observer status. It is noticeable that almost all those absent from the group are maritime countries, apart from being allies or partners of the United States, while if we mark the participating countries on a map (as above), CICA represents almost the entirety of non-Western Eurasia, thus broadening its role as the central core in this space of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), reinforced by the forthcoming incorporation of India, Pakistan and Iran as fully-fledged members Xi Jinping himself announced his desire to strengthen the SCO and its coordination with CICA: “Xi Jinping Attends SCO Summit in Dushanbe and Delivers Important Speech Stressing Gathering People’s Will and Power and Coordinating Sincerely to Push SCO to a New Level”, 12 September 2014, http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/t1191482.shtml (last consultation 11-12-2014). Map coinciding with the proposals for economic integration put forward by Beijing. 47 On the Chinese “New Security Concept”, see DELAGE, Fernando. La República Popular China http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
REVISTA IEEE 5
To see the actual publication please follow the link above