The 7th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was held on the 15th in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. Participants exchanged views on Asian security and development, implementation of confidence-building measures and deepening pragmatic cooperation. The meeting adopted and issued the Baku Declaration of the 7th CICA Summit.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev chaired the summit and delivered a speech. He noted that during Azerbaijan’s two-year tenure as the CICA Chair, the country actively promoted cooperation in transport, connectivity, digitalization, environment, tourism, education, science and technology. The institutional and legal foundation of CICA has been further consolidated, and its capacity to foster dialogue, economic development and mutual understanding among member states has been enhanced.

The Baku Declaration of the 7th CICA Summit reaffirms commitment to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and universally recognized international law. It stresses that amid an increasingly complex international environment, multilateralism should be upheld and mutual cooperation strengthened. All parties agreed to implement cooperation under the CICA Catalogue of Confidence-Building Measures across five areas: military-political affairs, addressing new threats and challenges, economy, environment, and humanities.

The Declaration acknowledged progress in CICA institutional building made under Azerbaijan’s Chairmanship, including the establishment of the CICA Women’s Committee, institutionalization of the CICA Financial Summit, and launch of the Leading Universities Partnership Network. It welcomed Cambodia’s ratification of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the CICA Secretariat, Its Personnel and Representatives of Member States, which fulfilled the conditions for the Convention’s entry into force.

The Summit admitted Laos as a full member, bringing CICA’s total membership to 29. The meeting decided that Azerbaijan will continue to serve as the CICA Chair for 2026–2028, and Sultan Hakeyev will take office as CICA Secretary-General for 2026–2030.

Wang Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Representative of President Xi Jinping, attended the summit and delivered a speech. He put forward four initiatives to advance cooperation among CICA member states: jointly uphold peace and stability, jointly promote prosperity and revitalization, jointly advance exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, and jointly improve global governance.

CICA is a security forum proposed by Kazakhstan at the 47th UN General Assembly in 1992. It is committed to formulating and implementing multilateral confidence-building measures to advance peace, security and stability in Asia and strengthen cooperation in relevant fields. China is a founding member of CICA.

Source: Shanghai Securities News