The ministers of foreign affairs of member nations of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) met in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, on October 11-12 for the Sixth Meeting of the CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs, when the situation in the world, including Asia, requires close interaction, exchange of views, joint response to new challenges and threats, peaceful settlement of conflicts and stronger confidence building measures.
Tajikistan was represented at the meeting by Deputy Foreign Affairs Farhod Salim, according to the Tajik MFA information department.
Yesterday, he addressed the meeting of the heads of delegations of Central Asian countries and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
In his statement, Farhod Salim described the meeting as a manifestation of a high level of political ties and trust between the countries of Central Asia and the GCC and emphasized the importance of continuation the dialogue in this format for the further development of cooperation on priority areas of bilateral, regional and multilateral relations.
In his statement, Tajik official also touched upon important regional problems, including the current situation in Afghanistan.
The Tajik MFA information department says Salim also spoke about environmental problems, and informed the meeting participants about Tajikistan's initiatives in this area.
In this context, the Tajik deputy foreign minister called on the CICA member nations to support Tajik president’s initiative to declare 2025 as the International Year for the Preservation of Glaciers and to determine the date of World Glacier Day.
The chairmanship on the sixth meeting of the CICA ministers of foreign affairs adopted a statement
The statement, in particular says that the ministers stress that terrorism, separatism and extremism coupled with human rights abuses, financial crises and environmental degradation continue to affect the lives of millions of people around the world.
The ministers support the proposal by the CICA chairman-in-office to hold structured discussions on transformation of CICA into an international organization for regional security and cooperation in Asia and will study the concept of transformation.
The ministers strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They express their deep concern about the security challenges in Asia and beyond, caused by the threat of terrorism and the actions of terrorist organizations. The ministers reiterate their commitment to work together to prevent and suppress terrorism, including cross-border movements of terrorists, through increased international solidarity and cooperation.
The ministers encourage international community to assist Afghanistan in implementing major infrastructure projects, particularly in the areas of transport and energy, which undoubtedly contribute to Afghanistan’s emergence as an important link in regional connectivity. In this regard, the ministers stress the importance of providing transit facilities to Afghanistan by its neighboring countries, while ensuring national sovereignty of these countries and taking all necessary measures to prevent drug trafficking and infiltration of terrorist and other extremist elements under the pretense of refugees to the neighboring countries.
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 the First 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.
