Astana, 28 May 2026 – CICA Secretary General Ambassador Kairat Sarybay held a meeting with Mr. Maxim Ryzhenkov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, who became the first Foreign Minister of a CICA Observer State to visit the new CICA Headquarters in Astana.
During the meeting, the parties discussed the current CICA agenda. The Secretary General highlighted the continued expansion of CICA's geographical reach and touched upon issues related to cooperation with Observer States.
Particular attention was paid to the CICA transformation process and the priorities of the current Azerbaijani Chairmanship in the lead-up to the Seventh CICA Summit, scheduled to take place in Baku in October 2026.
During the subsequent exchange of views on the work of the CICA advisory mechanisms, the Secretary General also shared the latest developments in the implementation of confidence building measures across the five dimensions of cooperation reflected in the Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures.
In turn, Minister Ryzhenkov called for more active engagement with Observer States. Given the growing trade and economic ties between Belarus and CICA Member States, he expressed Minsk’s interest in strengthening substantive cooperation across all five dimensions of CICA cooperation, as well as with its institutions.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the Foreign Minister of Belarus shared his vision of the key ideas underpinning the “Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity in the 21st Century” and invited the CICA Secretary General to participate in the Fourth Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security, to be held in November 2026.
