Baku, December 17, AZERTAC

The 7th meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Ministerial Council) of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was held in online format hosted by Azerbaijan on Tuesday.

Foreign Ministers, State Ministers, Deputy Foreign Ministers, as well as heads of delegations from 27 member countries participated in the meeting of the Ministerial Council and delivered speeches. Leaders of 3 observer states and 8 partner international organizations also participated in the Ministerial Council meeting.

At the MC meeting, the Chairmanship of the Conference for 2024-2026 was handed over to Azerbaijan.

Addressing the meeting, Minister Jeyhun Bayramov thanked all Member States for the confidence placed on Azerbaijan and approving its chairmanship of CICA for 2024-2026. Minister also highlighted that as multi-polarity rises and multilateralism faces new challenges, Asia must respond with unity, cooperation, and shared responsibility. He also stressed that CICA is uniquely positioned to foster this cooperation and address the challenges faced.

Minister Jeyhun Bayramov noted that the Azerbaijani Chairmanship of CICA is grounded in the theme of “Stronger CICA – Connectivity, Digitalization, and Sustainable Growth in Asia” and will prioritize three overarching issues, namely CICA’s transformation and institutional development, sectoral cooperation through implementation of confidence-building measures, and promoting synergy between CICA and other international and regional organizations.

Minister Jeyhun Bayramov also emphasized that over 20 Chairmanship events are planned for 2025 across all five CICA dimensions. In this regard, he said that special focus will be on cooperation areas such as transportation corridors, development of small and medium-sized enterprises, agriculture, cybersecurity, environment, youth, tourism, protection of cultural heritage, humanitarian mine action, science and education.

In addition, the Minister highlighted that Azerbaijan’s Chairmanship will focus on increasing CICA’s international visibility and expanding its network of partnerships with other international and regional organizations.

Moreover, a “Report on the achievements of the Conference under the Chairmanship of Kazakhstan in 2020-2024” was presented by the Secretary General of CICA, Kairat Sarybay.

The CICA Ministerial Council adopted Commemorative Statement on the 25th Anniversary of the Declaration on the Principles Guiding Relations among the CICA Member States, as well as “Decision of the CICA Ministerial Council on Modalities of Implementation of CICA Confidence Building Measures”, the amended version of “CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures” and “Memorandum of Establishment of the Partnership Network of Leading Universities of the Member States of CICA”.