The CICA Senior Officials Committee (SOC) met in Astana on 27 June 2024 to discuss the organization’s ongoing work, progress in implementation of the Road Map for CICA Transformation (RMT), initiatives of the Kazakh Chairmanship in office, and preparations for the Seventh Ministerial Council Meeting in Baku on 11 November 2024. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Alibek Bakayev. High-level representatives of CICA Member States also discussed preparations for the CICA Ministerial Conference on Environmental Issues on 28 August 2024, CICA Think Tank Forum activities, as well as relations with other international organizations.
The SOC conducted its annual review of the implementation of CICA confidence building measures (CBMs) in the human dimension. Senior Officials encouraged Member States to engage in voluntary implementation of CBM events in this dimension and noted the possibility of including cooperation on promoting volunteerism and youth engagement within the CICA region into CICA CBMs.
With regard to CICA transformation into a full-fledged international organization, Senior Officials welcomed the presentation by the Chairmanship on the initial drafts of the CICA Charter and updated CICA Rules of Procedure, and agreed to work under Clusters 1 and 4 of the RMT on the basis of these drafts.
On Clusters 3 and 2 of the transformation roadmap, the SOC welcomed progress achieved by the Kazakh Chairmanship on defining international status of CICA Secretariat personnel and respectively amending the CICA Host Country Agreement, and noted the importance of achieving consensus on the draft decision on modalities of implementation of CBMs until the Baku Ministerial.
Senior Officials approved, subject to a 2 week-long silence procedure, the draft outcome document of the first ever CICA environmental conference at the ministerial level, for adoption at the conference. The SOC also adopted the Annual Action Plan of the CICA Think Tank Forum for 2024, and approved the concept paper in the CBM priority area “Security of and in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs)” for 2024-2025.
The Member State representatives also discussed proposals by the Kazakh Chairmanship on expected outcome documents to be prepared for the Baku Ministerial Council meeting, as well as strengthening cooperation with such international organizations as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT).
