Sixth CICA Summit 2022.

Sixth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Summit was held from October 12-13 in Astana, Kazakhstan. The summit was chaired by Kazakhstan's President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The agenda of the Summit was to deliberate on key issues pertaining to CICA's objectives. This year CICA also celebrated the 30th Anniversary of its foundation. The CICA has the 27-Member countries contributing to peace and prosperity in Asia. Along these lines, it endeavoured to resolve key issues pertaining to its internal mechanism and functioning by taking into account the most pressing global issues, especially in the backdrop of the situation in Eurasia and the Middle East. 11 heads of state attended, including the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Belarus (observer), Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the State of Palestine, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan, as well as the Emir of Qatar and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif. Vice-Presidents of China and Vietnam also participated in the summit.

Other countries were represented at various levels. Aside from that, approximately 50 delegations from member-states, observer-states, observer organizations, partner organizations, and guests of the chairmanship attended the summit. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivered a video address to the participants of the sixth CICA summit. Then, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran, President Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, President Recep Tayyip ErdoAan of Turkiye, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, Vice President Wang Qishan of China, Vice President Vo Tha>> Anh Xuan of Vietnam, and President

Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus delivered their statement. Among the other guests were the Deputy Secretary-General of TURKPA, Talgat Aduov, and the Secretary General of the Organization of Turkic States, Baghdad Amreyev attended the two-day Summit. Natalia Gherman; Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Central Asia and Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, Manfred Profazi IOM's Regional Director for South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, Khalil Al Thawadi, Assistant Secretary General at LAS, and Yuri Fenopetov, Deputy Head of OSCE office in Kazakhstan were also in attendance at the Summit. Likewise, Khusrav Noziri, the Secretary General of ECO, along with Grigory Logvinov, SCO Deputy Secretary General, Altamash Wazir Khan, EC RATS SCO Deputy Director, and Andrey Seleznev, Head of the UNODC Programme office in Kyrgyzstan also attended the Summit.

CICA is a multinational organization with the objective of collaboration for stability, security, and peace throughout Asia. It is based on the understanding that there is a close-knit connection between stability, peace, and security in Asia and the rest of the globe. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan, first suggested the concept of holding CICA on October 5, 1992, during the 47th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The driving force behind this initiative was the need to establish an effective and acceptable system for ensuring peace and security in Asia. CICA Member states are Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkiye, UAE, and Uzbekistan.

The CICA Observer States are Belarus, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and the USA. The Observer Organizations include the International Organization for Migration

(IOM), the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the League of Arab States (LAS), and the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States (TURKPA).

The sixth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) began under the chairmanship of the Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. In his speech, the President of Kazakhstan thanked the leaders of the countries participating in the summit and noted that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the initiative to convene the Conference. During this period, CICA has become a platform for multilateral cooperation and an international institution of modern diplomacy. The Head of State separately welcomed Kuwait, which joined the CICA. Particular attention in the speech was paid to the geopolitical situation on the planet. - Today we are living through an unprecedented geopolitical storm and a growing crisis of the world economy. This phenomenon has already been called "global dysfunction".

Since the last CICA summit in 2019, the global community has experienced severe trials, the negative consequences of which continue to affect global development. In my view, a particularly important challenge before us is to achieve sustainability in international relations in the face of emerging unprecedented threats. It is critically important to give a new impetus to multilateral mechanisms and return to an open dialogue, - the President of Kazakhstan said. According to him, Asia has made a tremendous contribution to the development of human civilization. For several millennia, the states of our macro-region have been the main driving force behind the social, cultural, and technological progress of all humanity. - The forecast that the 21st century would be Asian is now a reality. Asia has become a recognized global economic leader in nominal GDP and purchasing power parity. The region has substantial human and natural resources. 21 of the 30 largest cities worldwide are in Asia. Of the estimated $30 trillion in middle-class consumption growth by 2030, only $1 trillion is expected to come from today's Western economies.

But the future of Asia itself will depend on our collective readiness to strengthen dialogue among our cultures, traditions and worldviews. I am confident that the steps we have already taken to develop CICA are coherent with this goal, -Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said. According to the President, Kazakhstan, as chair of the Conference, sets itself the task to increase the efforts to further advance the CICA process. Last year, the CICA Confidence Building Measures Catalogue was revised to include new priority areas of cooperation such as epidemiological safety, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, security of information and communication technologies. -...