ASTANA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- The sixth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is being held in the Kazakh capital here from Wednesday to Thursday.
The idea of convening the CICA, a forum on security issues, was proposed by Kazakhstan in 1992 at the 47th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The CICA is committed to working out and implementing multilateral confidence building measures aimed at promoting peace, security and stability in Asia and strengthening cooperation in these areas.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the CICA. The forum, as an important mechanism in Asia for dialogue and consultation on security issues, has been playing a constructive role in enhancing mutual trust and coordination among countries and maintaining security and stability in Asia over the past three decades.
The CICA started operation in March 1993. Its first summit was held in the Kazakh city of Almaty in June 2002, when the Almaty Act and the Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting Dialogue among Civilizations were signed and approved in order to bolster peace, security and stability in Asia.
After that, four CICA summits were convened in Almaty in June 2006, in the Turkish city of Istanbul in June 2010, in the Chinese city of Shanghai in May 2014, and in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe in June 2019. Kazakhstan has been holding the CICA presidency since 2020.
Currently, the CICA has 27 member states as well as 14 observer states and organizations. It has established discussion and decision-making mechanisms, including meetings of heads of state and government (summits), meetings of foreign ministers, sessions of the senior officials committee, and meetings of the special working group. Summits and meetings of foreign ministers are held alternately, and the country holding the presidency hosts the two events.
The permanent administrative body of the CICA, the secretariat, was launched in June 2006. It moved from Almaty to Astana in September 2014. ■
