TEHRAN (Iran News) – The Republic of Kazakhstan as a newly independent country has played its role perfectly as a great actor and mentor in the security, peace and sustainable development in Asia and the globe and among its 28 members.
On Thursday, Astana the capital city of Kazakhstan hosted one of the most important and valuable summits to show its determination for boosting cooperation among its members especially in security and sustainable development.
The Sixth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit talks was held in Astana as the summit celebrated its 30th anniversary of foundation. Kazakhstan is the founder of this summit as the first edition was held in Almaty on June 4, 2002, with the participation of sixteen member states and ten observer states and organizations. The Summit adopted the most important constitutive document of CICA – the Almaty Act, which acts as the Charter of CICA.
On Thursday Kuwait was accepted as the new member of the CICA and now it has 28 permanent members and with a bigger community it can continue its role in protecting security in Asia and even in the world.
The first president of the Republic of Kazakhstan and father of amazing progress of the country Nursultan Nazarbayev with his wise initiative founded this summit and his successor President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is determined to pursue this policy of Nazarbayev and his country for playing a key role in the regional issues.
Addressing the conference, President Tokayev said, “In 1999, there were 15 member states in the conference, and now their number has reached 28. This, in fact, shows that the credibility of the forum in the eyes of the Asian countries and the world community as a whole has increased,” and expressed his congratulations to Kuwait for joining the group.
Turkmenistan joined CICA as an observer. Decisions were made to establish cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to Tokayev.
Eleven heads of state including presidents of Azerbaijan, Belarus (observer), Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan, as well as the Emir of Qatar and nearly 50 delegations attended the summit, deemed one of the most significant post-pandemic foreign policy events in the country and on the continent.
This gathering revealed the importance of the summit and they key role of Kazakhstan as the members extended Kazakhstan’s chairpersonship of the summit for two years and it bespeaks the trust of members to the sincerity of Kazakhstan in this summit.
The transformation of the conference into an organization topped the agenda of the talks between regional leaders, with many countries expressing their full support.
Ambassador of the Summit from Kazakhstan Mr. Kairat Sarybay was appointed as the new first Secretary General of the Summit.
The participants of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) sixth summit also adopted the Astana Statement during their plenary session.
This milestone decision has been a key priority of Kazakhstan’s chairpersonship in CICA in 2020-2022. The transformation into an organization will affect development priorities as Kazakhstan renews its chairpersonship for the next two years.
“Are there any objections to the adoption of documents on the transformation of the CICA? There are no objections. The Astana statement on the transformation of CICA is considered to be accepted,” said President Tokayev during the summit.
The importance of this transformation was first raised by Tokayev in October 2021 during his meeting with the delegations participating in the sixth meeting of CICA foreign ministers. He said back then that CICA possessed all the elements of an international organization, including fundamental documents, governing and working bodies, an operating budget, a permanent secretariat, and its transformation will “emphasize Asia’s new role in global affairs.”
Meanwhile the First Secretary General of the Summit Mr. Sarybay in a press conference highlighted the importance of decisions in the six summits and the issues which were discussed in the summit.
He said that the main goal of this summit and bloc is to bring its members together for improving security issues and to boost sustainable development and the group has been almost successful in fulfilling its goals but it needs to take more major and important steps which have been decided in the current meeting.
He reiterated that there are different organizations in the region or the world but what distinguishes the CICA from other blocs is that it is not restricted to certain countries and it covers all countries in Asia and even in the world as permanent members or observer countries.
He once again stressed that the CICA does its job to bring peace and security among its members but sometimes it is difficult but the bloc does make its efforts.
Sarbay also said that it is an honor for Kazakhstan to play an active role in the regional issues especially for restoring peace and security and settling the differences and expressed hope that the CICA would be successful in materializing its goal through sincere cooperation of its members because Kazakhstan is a tool and initiator and it seeks all-out cooperation from its members, adding that the CICA welcomes joining other countries to it because it can ease solving some differences and disputes.
Kazakhstan is determined to make this bloc an impressive and influential one in the region especially in the security issues because security is the main issue for the member states which seek having peace and tranquility in their lands.

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The First Secretary General of the CICA Mr. Kairat Saraby speaks to reporters in a press conference at the end of the six CICA Summit in Astana on Thursday, October 13