Your Excellency President Xi Jinping,
Excellencies Heads of State and Government,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour to be given the opportunity to be among such a distinguished gathering; and to share with you some ideas on how we can take forward CICA’s work in enhancing peace, stability and security in Asia.

At the outset, I wish to commend Turkey for its able stewardship in advancing the CICA process over the past four years.

Thailand also wishes to congratulate China, as the in-coming chair of CICA.  We have every confidence in your leadership. Rest assured that you have our fullest support.  

And of course, CICA would not be what it is today without the vision of President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan.

And today, we join with others in warmly welcoming Bangladesh and Qatar as new members of CICA.

Excellencies,

We meet here at a very crucial juncture for both CICA and the region.

Asia’s rise – its rapid growth, development and increasing integration – has indeed captured the attention of the international community.  But so have current geopolitical developments in the region, which have given rise to concern among many of us.

In this context, in which we witness rising opportunities on the one hand, and yet emerging challenges on the other, CICA’s role becomes all the more important. 

Our meeting today presents an opportunity to pool our thinking and look ahead with respect not just to the future of CICA, but to the region as a whole.

CICA has made admirable progress in its 22-year history, both in terms of enhancing mutual trust and confidence in Asia and in expanding its membership.
 
Building upon these achievements, the time has come for CICA to go beyond building mutual trust and confidence to building a sense of community and cultivating a sense of shared interests, values and prosperity.

Taking this opportunity, allow me to share with you Thailand’s views on how we see the community-building efforts advancing.

First, we should build a community based on the notion of comprehensive security.

We should recognize that economic development, growth and prosperity underpin and help secure our peace and security.  Therefore, we should intensify our economic cooperation and integration.  

Indeed, the more nations are interlocked in relations of shared prosperity, the less likely they are to engage in conflict.

Closer economic integration requires us to redouble our efforts in promoting connectivity in all its dimensions.

Therefore, Thailand proposes that we focus on enhancing regional connectivity through land, maritime and air links as well as people-to-people contacts in order to bring increased socio-economic opportunities to our peoples.

We believe that China’s proposal for a new Maritime Silk Road is a timely initiative.

In this connection, Thailand welcomes the emphasis given in the Summit Declaration to promoting regional connectivity through joint efforts.  We support this proposal and hope that other Member States will join in these efforts.

Second, we should build a community that goes beyond state-centred security to security centred on the individual.

It is, therefore, imperative that we address pressing non-traditional security issues that have a direct bearing on human security, such as poverty, food, energy, water, health, human trafficking and smuggling, transnational crimes and terrorism.

We very much welcome the inclusion of these issues in the Summit Declaration and strongly believe that they should be high on the CICA agenda in the years to come.

Third, we should build a community whose members have a shared responsibility in maintaining a peaceful and harmonious external environment so that our nations and peoples can continue to prosper.

All of us have a responsibility to contribute to peace and security in the region and at the global level in a manner commensurate with our size and influence. 

This requires a new mindset, for instance treating security as win-win instead of as a zero-sum game and being mindful that actions can lead to counter-actions and miscalculation, which would not be in any of our interest.

Indeed, in an interconnected world, peace and harmony depend on the embrace of shared universal values and norms, such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law.  The community that we seek to build should, therefore, promote such values and norms. 

Indeed, we know that democracy is not easy.  As in the case of Thailand, more democracy can lead to more challenges.  But at the end of the day, we believe that democracy is still the best way forward for a peaceful and prosperous society.  Therefore, what is most important is our determination to stay the course of democracy.

Excellencies,

Within Asia, community-building efforts are ongoing and are being undertaken in many frameworks, be they sub-regionally such as in ASEAN, or regionally such as in the ACD, or the Asia Cooperation Dialogue. And given the diversity in Asia, there is no single overarching architecture for these efforts.

Nevertheless, CICA can draw on the experiences of ASEAN as it accelerates its work to realise an ASEAN Community by next year.

CICA can also make use of the experiences and approach of the ACD, many of whose members are also members of CICA.  Having spearheaded the ACD, Thailand is working with fellow members to reinvigorate the ACD process.

In fact, the ACD is working on a Blueprint for Enhancing ACD Regional Connectivity and is scheduled to host a Summit in Thailand next year under this theme.

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thailand is confident that CICA can respond to the times and be a driving force for a stronger, more united and harmonious Asia.

In this connection, Thailand will continue to take active part in CICA’s efforts to enhance peace, security and stability in Asia as an expression of our sense of shared responsibility to the peoples of Asia.

And last but not least, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Government of the People’s Republic of China for the excellent arrangements and warm hospitality extended to my delegation and myself during our stay in Shanghai.
 
Thank you very much.