The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia is an inter-governmental forum for enhancing cooperation and promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.

The CICA was first proposed by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in late 1992.

The two founding documents of the CICA are the Declaration on the Principles Guiding Relations among the CICA Member States and the Almaty Act, the charter of the CICA.

While affirming their commitment to the UN Charter, member states believe that peace and security in Asia can be achieved through dialog and cooperation leading to a common indivisible area of security in Asia where all states co-exist peacefully and their peoples live in peace, freedom and prosperity.

The CICA now has 24 member states: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Republic of Korea, Russia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Observers are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and the United States, as well as the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the League of Arab States and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic Speaking Countries.

A state must have at least a part of its territory in Asia to become a CICA member.

Major events:

September 1999

The first meeting of CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between CICA Member States was adopted at the meeting.

June 2002

The first CICA Summit was held in Almaty with the participation of 16 member states that adopted the Almaty Act, the charter of the CICA.

October 2004

The second meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in Almaty. The CICA Catalog of Confidence Building Measures and the CICA Rules of Procedures were adopted.

June 2006

The second CICA Summit was held in Almaty, where it was decided to establish a permanent secretariat and Thailand and South Korea were admitted as new members.

August 2008

The third meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in Almaty, where Jordan and the United Arab Emirates were admitted as new members.

June 2010

The third CICA Summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey, where the chairmanship passed from Kazakhstan to Turkey. Also at the summit Iraq and Vietnam were admitted as new members and the CICA Convention was adopted.

September 2012

The fourth meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in Astana, Kazakhstan.

May 2014

The fourth CICA summit will be held in Shanghai.

- Li Fusheng

(China Daily 05/19/2014 page6)