(THE GIST OF PIB) Confidence Building Measures in Asia

[October-2021]

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in Nur Sultan in Kazakhstan on the second leg of visit to Central Asia. Dr Jaishankar will attend the 6th Ministerial meeting of the Conference of Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Nur-Sultan. Kazakhstan is the current Chair and initiator of the CICA Forum.

About:

It is an inter-governmental forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.

Timeline:

CICA was established at the initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan outlined at the 47th UNGA in 1992.
First Ministerial Meeting was held in September 1999 and First Summit was held in June 2002.
The two founding documents of CICA are Declaration on the Principles Guiding Relations between the CICA Member States adopted at the First Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs held in Almaty on 14 September 1999 and the Almaty Act, charter of CICA, adopted at the First Summit held in Almaty on 4 June 2002.

Members:

To be a member of CICA, a state must have at least a part of its territory in Asia.
Presently CICA has twenty-seven Member States. India has been associated with the CICA process and its activities since the Beginning.
Nine countries and five multi-national organizations, including the United Nations, have observer status.

Administration:

The highest decision-making organ of CICA is the Meeting of the CICA Heads of State and Government (Summit).
The CICA Summit is convened every four years. The Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs is required to be held every two years.
The CICA Secretariat – administrative body of CICA – is located in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.