Boao, Hainan province, China
24 March 2026
Excellencies,
Distinguished colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honor to participate in the Annual Conference of the Boao Forum for Asia at its 25th Anniversary, a distinguished platform that has become one of the most influential voices promoting openness, dialogue, and shared development across Asia.
Today, the international community is navigating a period of profound transformation, including geopolitical tensions, military actions, instability in international trade and rising protectionism. Asia is subject to all this challenges and threats.
Despite existing turbulences, Asia remains one of the principal engines of the global economy and an increasingly influential voice for the global community. Across the continent, countries are pursuing development-oriented cooperation, deepening economic integration, and strengthening connectivity across Asia and its subregions.
In this evolving landscape, Asian multilateralism has become an important stabilizing force. Regional organizations across Asia are helping countries coordinate policies, manage shared challenges, and promote inclusive development. Together, they form a diverse but complementary network of institutions supporting peace, stability, and prosperity.
The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) represents one of the most inclusive platforms within this emerging architecture of Asian security and cooperation. Today, CICA brings together 28 Member States, covering nearly 90 percent of the Asian continent and representing more than half of the world’s population.
Since its establishment, CICA has been guided by principles that remain highly relevant today: sovereign equality, mutual respect, consensus-based decision-making and voluntary cooperation. These principles allow countries with different political systems, development models, and cultural backgrounds to work together constructively.
Over the three decades, CICA has developed a unique Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures, which forms the operational backbone of our organization. These measures cover five key dimensions of cooperation: economic, environmental, human, new challenges and threats, and military-political. This framework allows Member States to gradually align policies, share best practices, and develop practical cooperation projects.
Since its evolution, CICA has established a number of advisory bodies, such as Business Council, Youth Council, Think Tank Forum, Council of Eminent Persons, Partnership Network of Leading Universities, recently established Finance Summit and Women Council, as well as a special mechanism - the CICA Fund.
The practice of adopting thematic statements and documents is expanding. At the Sixth CICA Summit in October 2022, the Member States adopted the CICA Leaders’ Statement on Cooperation in the Field of Security of and in the Use of Information and Communication Technologies and the CICA Plan of Action on the Implementation of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. In 2023, the CICA Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs adopted the Statement on Promoting Volunteerism for Sustainable Development. Last year, the CICA Ministerial Conference adopted the High-level Statement on Environmental Issues.
The current Chairmanship of Azerbaijan has placed particular emphasis on advancing practical cooperation among Member States, as well as increasing synergy with other international and regional platforms. At present, under Azerbaijan’s leadership CICA is undergoing a historic transformation into a full-fledged international organization, which will further strengthen its institutional capacity and enhance its ability to coordinate with other regional structures.
Distinguished colleagues,
Asia’s future will depend not only on economic dynamism but also on the strength of its cooperative institutions. Platforms such as the Boao Forum for Asia play a vital role in fostering dialogue among governments, business communities, and international organizations.
For its part, CICA seeks to contribute to this evolving architecture of Asian multilateralism by promoting dialogue, building trust, and encouraging cooperation across the continent.
As a pan-Asian platform, CICA stands ready to serve as a bridging point connecting regional organizations across Asia — from East Asia to Central Asia, from the West Asia to South and Southeast Asia — helping translate our shared aspirations for peace, stability, openness, and development into practical cooperation. CICA is already facilitating cooperation with several UN organizations and other regional fora. Memorandums of Understanding are in place with IOM and UNODC, efforts are ongoing to formalize relationships with UN ESCAP and UNOCT. Institutionalized relations also exist with the SCO and EAEU, while regular dialogue continues with the Economic Cooperation Organization, League of Arab States, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and TurkPA.
CICA-ASEAN dialogue has seen substantial progress as we play complementary roles in promoting dialogue, confidence building and cooperation in Asia and beyond. Our intention is to further promote interaction between CICA and ASEAN in areas such as connectivity, environmental issues, youth engagement, volunteerism, capacity building and project implementation.
By strengthening coordination among our institutions and by amplifying the collective voice of Asia, we can work together to build a more integrated, resilient, and prosperous continent and contribute meaningfully to a more balanced and cooperative international order. To pay a path to this goal and commemorate the 20th anniversary of the CICA Secretariat we are planning a number of special events, including an initiative to invite all executive structures of regional organizations across Asia to the CICA Headquarters in Astana in June 2026.
Thank you for your attention.
