The Seventh Meeting of the Ministerial Council (MC) of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is due to take place online on 17 December 2024.
The meeting is also to mark the conclusion of Kazakhstan’s CICA Chairmanship for the period 2020 – 2024 and the overall beginning of Azerbaijan’s Chairmanship for 2024 – 2026. The Ministerial will be opened by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu, who is expected to highlight significant achievements under the Kazakh Chairmanship.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, the host of the Ministerial Council meeting, will take over the Chair at its opening, presenting Azerbaijan’s vision for CICA’s future development and priorities for the next biennium.
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As regular meetings of the CICA MC and CICA Summit occur biennially, the foreign ministers of the 28 Member States are set to discuss a broad range of critical international issues, including global and regional peace and security in light of recent geopolitical developments in Asia and the world since the last CICA Summit in Astana in October 2022.
From the 7th CICA MC Meeting, the drafting of important documents which will be later ratified in consensus by the CICA Senior Officials Committee has been carried out.
Among the main expected results is the ministerial statement marking the 25th anniversary of the adoption in 1999 of the first CICA founding document, which established the fundamental principles guiding relations among CICA Member States.
The MC will likely develop a new cooperation mechanism, namely, a network of universities from the CICA Member States to facilitate cooperation in education, academic, and scientific exchanges. The proposal was initially submitted by the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in 2022, and it has secured the support of 175 universities wishing to join.