Participants of the Central Asia – India Summit, held in an online format on 27 January 2022, expressed their commitment to work together on the transformation of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) into an international organization aimed at enhancing dialogue, peace and cooperation in Asia.
“Recent developments in the world have demonstrated that terrorism, extremism and transnational crime remain pressing challenges we face today”, stated in his address President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mr.Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
“In this context, CICA becomes even more relevant. Kazakhstan, as the current chair of the Forum will take every effort to enhance security and cooperation in the CICA region. We believe that the further institutional development of the Forum, its transformation into an international organization will provide a new impetus to our common work”, noted the President of Kazakhstan.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev reiterated that CICA’s anniversary summit will be held this year, and pointed out that its agenda covering all important items of today’s reality will also include the Afghan problem:
“Despite our political views and personal beliefs, we nevertheless must not abandon Afghanistan and its people during such unprecedented times and the existing humanitarian crisis. Kazakhstan, on its part, continues its practical interaction with Afghanistan at regular intervals by providing it with necessary assistance in the form of food, essential goods and medical supplies. I strongly believe that a secure and stable Afghanistan will open up new horizons to expand its trade and economic relations and will contribute to sustainable development in Asia”.
In the outcome declaration of the Central Asia – India Summit, it was noted that the leaders of the Central Asian states and India expressed their full support to Kazakhstan in its capacity as the current Chair in CICA, and its initiative to hold the Sixth CICA Summit in 2022 that will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Forum.
India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan are members to CICA; Turkmenistan gained CICA observer status in 2021.
Source: official website of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan
