ASTANA (TCA) — Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov on October 28 participated in a ceremonial opening of a new office of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Secretariat in Astana, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
Those attending the ceremony were Executive Director of the CICA Secretariat Gong Jianwei, heads and members of the CICA countries’ delegations who were participating in a meeting of the Special Working Group and CICA Senior Officials’ Committee.
“We must be proud of that our organization is successfully functioning for more than 20 years. Over this period, the CICA has proved to be an authoritative and relevant dialogue platform on solution of the acute issues of the regional and international agendas. To date, the CICA is one of the most authoritative inter-state forums in Asia uniting 26 countries, 8 observer states and a number of international organizations,” said Idrissov.
The Minister reminded that the idea of convening the CICA belongs to President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, who initiated it on October 5, 1992 from the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly. The initiative was based on aspiration to ensure peace, security and stability in Asia. “It is gratifying to see that Nazarbayev’s idea has been transformed into an efficiently-functioning forum on ensuring peace and stability in Asia. We jointly set big goals and the potential of the CICA has strengthened significantly to reach these goals,” the Minister emphasized.
Gong Jianwei appreciated the activity of the CICA on strengthening the spirit of cooperation and confidence in Asia, emphasizing the growing activity of the member countries in the work of the forum. He also thanked Kazakhstan leadership and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for constant support of the CICA Secretariat’s activity.
