Azerbaijan was elected as the CICA Chairperson for 2024-2026 by the CICA Council of Foreign Ministers on March 19, 2024, due to Mart 14 recommendations made at meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials of the Council for Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA.
Based on the decision, Azerbaijan plans to host a meeting of the CICA Council of Foreign Ministers in 2024 and a meeting of the CICA Council of Heads of State and Government in 2026 while serving as chairman, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported.
"Azerbaijan actively participates in collaboration within the CICA framework. Our government coordinates the confidence-building initiative "Development of safe and efficient transport corridors." The Almaty Act, enacted in 2002, and the Declaration of Principles Governing Relations between CICA Member States, issued in 1999, are the major texts governing CICA activities. The Astana Statement on the Transformation of CICA was agreed upon during the CICA Summit in 2022, marking the start of the process of transforming CICA into a full-fledged regional international organization. Currently, the group has 28 members. In addition, ten countries and international organizations such as the UN, OSCE, International Organization for Migration, League of Arab States, and TURKPA have observer status in CICA. The administrative body of CICA is the Secretariat, located in Astana and coordinating the activities of the Council. CICA activity management and priority setting are carried out by the presiding country," the ministry said.
Kazakhstan proposed CICA for the first time on October 5, 1992, during the 47th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The effort sought to establish an effective and universal institution to safeguard Asia's security.
CICA participants are not only Asian countries, such as Kazakhstan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, India, the Republic of Korea, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, but also states of neighboring regions: Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Russia and Azerbaijan.
