The Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in the capital of Kazakhstan will sum up the two-year presidency of the Republic in this international structure, Aibek Smadiyarov, official representative of Kazakhstan's MFA, said at a briefing on Monday.
"It is expected that the CICA summit will be one of the most large-scale foreign policy events not only in Kazakhstan, but also on the continent as a whole in the post-pandemic period. The upcoming summit is the main event of Kazakhstan's presidency, which, among other things, will summarize our two-year work as CICA chair. During the summit it is planned to adopt a number of documents and decisions," he said.
According to him, 11 heads of state will participate in the event: the president of Kazakhstan, and the leaders of Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Vietnam will be represented at the level of a vice president, while the Chinese side will be represented by China's deputy chairman. The president of Belarus will participate in the forum, as the republic is an observer in CICA. All in all about 50 delegations are expected to arrive.
"As part of the preparations for the event, a meeting of the CICA Committee of Senior Officials is scheduled for October 10-11 in Astana," Smadiyarov explained.
He recalled that the CICA initiative was put forward by Kazakhstan in 1992 at the 47th session of the UN General Assembly. "The main purpose and direction of the activity is to strengthen cooperation through the development of multilateral approaches to ensure peace and security in Asia. I would like to note that for the past 30 years CICA has been implemented as a multilateral mechanism for strengthening stability and prosperity on the Asian continent. Since its establishment, CICA membership has grown to 27 states, covering 90 percent of the Asian continent," the representative of the foreign ministry said.
Kazakhstan chairs the organization in 2020-2022. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, speaking in September 2020 at a general political debate of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, said that due to the rapidly growing demand for confidence-building measures, the republic intends to transform CICA into a full-fledged security and development organization.
At a meeting of CICA foreign ministers in the capital of Kazakhstan in mid-October 2021, Deputy Foreign Minister Akan Rakhmetullin of Kazakhstan said that Kazakhstan intends to continue chairmanship of the Conference in 2022-2024.
About the meeting
CICA currently includes 27 member countries: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Israel, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Palestine, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Thailand, Republic of Korea, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Iraq, Bahrain, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Qatar, Sri Lanka. Another nine countries and five international organizations have observer status. Since 2014, the Forum's headquarters is located in the capital of Kazakhstan.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Jirka Dl/Creative Commons 3.0
Based on materials from TASS