Facilitation of Central Asian Regional Cooperation

On October 9 2009 the delegation of the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance – ITF consisting of Mr. Jernej Cimpersek, Deputy Head of Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the OSCE and Mr. Iztok Hocevar, Adviser for International Relations, ITF, visited CARICC. The purpose of the meeting was to get information and study experience of creation of a regional cooperation body such as CARICC. In the course of meeting, Mr. Murshudlu, Senior Coordinator of UNODC CARICC project, briefed delegation on CARICC history, process and stages of the establishment of the Centre and lessons learned. As it was noticed by the participants, there is no ideal model of regional organisation, however, confidence building and cooperation between all the participants still remain essential vehicles for success of such types of bodies. Since there are plans to establish a regional body for demining activities CARICC and UNODC will be invited to the meeting planned for November 2009 in Dushanbe to share experience in establishment of the regional cooperation centre.