Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Ambassador Kairat Sarybay visited Baku, Azerbaijan, to attend the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Contact Group in response to COVID-19.
The Summit chaired by Azerbaijan brought together heads of state, vice-presidents, foreign ministers, heads of international organizations, as well as other high-ranking representatives from various countries.
The Summit-level Meeting of the NAM Member States centred on overcoming the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring food security, environment protection and other pressing issues of sustainable development during the world's post-pandemic recovery.
The CICA Secretary General thanked President Ilham Aliyev and the Government of Azerbaijan for hosting the event and lauded the value of the NAM platform for exchanging information among nations and organizations on lessons learned from the pandemic, which, in his view, would be vital for collective emergency response in the future.
Ambassador Kairat Sarybay also outlined measures taken by CICA Member States in response to COVID-19, including in epidemiological safety, digitalization of small and medium enterprises, food security, and promoting sustainable connectivity.
On the sidelines of the Summit, the CICA Secretary General met with Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui, Senior Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia Dr. Sok Siphana, Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia Cheong Loon Lai, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan Muzaffar Huseinzoda, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) António Vitorino, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi, and Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization Zurab Pololikashvili.
Following the visit, Ambassador Sarybay gave an extensive interview to a number of international news agencies in Azerbaijan.
The Non-Aligned Movement was formed in 1961 to uphold the interests of developing countries in the context of the Cold War confrontation. To date, NAM has 120 Member States, or 60 percent of the United Nations membership. NAM also has 17 Observer States and 10 Observer Ogranizations. Azerbaijan assumed the NAM Chairmanship for 2019-2022.
