The fifth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) that took place in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe on June 15 ended with adoption of a declaration.
The declaration, in particular, says the next, sixth CICA summit will take place in 2022.
"We agree to hold the Sixth Meeting of CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs in 2020 and the Sixth CICA Summit in 2022," the declaration reads.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and other leaders of member countries including Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. attended the summit. Observers at the Dushanbe summit included the United States, Ukraine, Belarus, Japan, the United Nations, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The theme of the 5th CICA summit was “Common Vision for a Safe and More Prosperous CICA Region.”
The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is a multi-national forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia. It was initiated by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1992. In 1996, seventeen states participated in the conference and drafted the basic document. The first meeting of the CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held on 14 September 1999 with participation of 15 Member States. The Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between CICA Member States was adopted at that meeting. The first CICA summit was held in 2002.
CICA member states now include Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Iceland, India, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Norway, North Korea, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, South Korea, Russia, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
At a meeting of CICA foreign ministers that took place in September 2018 on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, the chairmanship of the forum for 2018-2020 moved from China to Tajikistan.
