ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Dec 16(Press Release)– The Seventh Meeting of the Ministerial Council (MC) of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) will convene online on 17 December 2024. The meeting will mark the completion of Kazakhstan’s 2020-2024 CICA Chairmanship and the start of the Azerbaijani Chairmanship in 2024-2026.
The Ministerial will be opened by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu, who is expected to highlight the most significant achievements of CICA under the Kazakh Chairmanship. (The detailed Chair’s report on 2020-2024 achievements of CICA is available here. A short film on the evolution of CICA from 1992 to date can be found here). Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, the host of the Ministerial Council meeting, will take over the Chair at its opening, and it is anticipated that he will present Azerbaijan’s vision of the future development of CICA and priorities for the next biennium.
As regular meetings of the CICA MC and CICA Summit are held with a two-year interval, the foreign ministers of the 28 Member State pan-Asian organization are set to engage in lively deliberations on a broad range of issues of top importance on international agenda, including global and regional peace and security in light of the current geopolitical situation in Asia and the world since the last CICA Summit in Astana in October 2022.
The Seventh CICA MC Meeting is expected to result in the adoption of important documents thoroughly negotiated in the run-up to the meeting and finalized by consensus in the CICA Senior Officials Committee.
The main political outcome aimed at by all Member States is a ministerial statement on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the first CICA founding document in 1999 (available here) which laid down the fundamental principles guiding relations among the CICA Member States. The upcoming ministerial meeting will test the degree of strength and relevance of those commitments taken by CICA forerunners.
The MC is expected to establish a new CICA mechanism of cooperation – the network of universities of CICA Member States to facilitate cooperation in the education field and academic and scientific exchanges. The proposal to set up such a network was put forward by President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in 2022. To date, 175 universities from CICA Member States expressed their intention to join the network.
The MC is also anticipated to adopt two key decisions in the core area of operational activities of the organization – confidence building measures (CBMs). A new area of cooperation within the human dimension, namely the promotion of volunteerism, is expected to be added to the CICA Catalogue of CBMs. The ministers are also expected to adopt a comprehensive framework document on modalities of CBM implementation, which would enhance their effectiveness and practical impact.
The Seventh MC Meeting will be a landmark event for CICA. It will celebrate the organization’s achievements over the past four years of Kazakhstan’s Chairmanship and set the stage for a renewed and strengthened CICA under Azerbaijan’s Chairmanship, ready to address the challenges and opportunities in the years to come. The next highest-level CICA gathering will take place in 2026, when Azerbaijan will host the Seventh CICA Summit at the end of its Chairmanship term.
