The Senior Officials Committee (SOC) of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) held its regular meeting on 14 December 2022 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the format of a videoconference.
The SOC took stock of the results of the year and made important decisions concerning the practical implementation of the Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures in 2023, budget planning and personnel issues.
SOC Chair - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Adil Tursunov highlighted the outcomes of the two-year chairmanship and plans for the next term of office until 2024.
CICA Secretary General Ambassador Kairat Sarybay presented the report of the CICA Secretariat for 2022, as well as proposals for increased activity next year.
The presented achievements and prospects of the Organization were commended by all participants of the meeting.
As a result of vigorous discussions, the Member States reached consensus on all the documents submitted for consideration:
· Concept papers of cooperation among the Member States in the areas of tourism and agriculture;
· CICA Plan of Confidence Building Measures and Provisional Calendar of CICA Bodies for 2023;
· The Secretariat’s budget for the coming year and decision on external financial audit for the period 2020-2022;
· Introduction of the position of CICA Deputy Secretary General and updated staff matrix of the Secretariat.
In the course of the meeting, a number of Member States proposed to introduce the Arabic language as a CICA working language in addition to English and Russian and instructed the Secretariat to look into the legal, financial and other aspects of the initiative.
Moreover, the SOC was presented information about the CICA Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Secretariat.
The Chairmanship and the Secretary General also shared their vision of further activities to operationalize the CICA Fund established by the Sixth Summit of the Organization in October 2022. The Fund is designed to ensure practical implementation of the CICA goals through voluntary financing of project activity.
In conclusion of the meeting, CICA Member States expressed gratitude to the Kazakh Chairmanship, the Secretary General and the staff members of the Secretariat for the hard work done in 2022 and contribution to the significant achievements of the Organization.
