BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 19. Azerbaijan's chairmanship will make a significant contribution to the main objectives of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Kairat Sarybay, the Secretary General of the CICA, told Trend in an exclusive interview.
"The main expectation from the Azerbaijani chairmanship of CICA is to contribute to the causes of collaboration, communication, and peace. This is our international organization's primary objective and direction. Thus, I believe these fundamental foundations of the human community will benefit greatly from Azerbaijan's chairmanship,” he said.
According to him, Azerbaijan has a great deal of experience chairing regional and international organizations, from the UN to the Non-Aligned Movement, which has recently had a remarkable chairmanship given its substantial institutional contribution.
"I think that interesting days await us during the years of Azerbaijan’s chairmanship. We anticipate holding a meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Ministerial Council) in 2024. Furthermore, since we have a preliminary concept and agreement, the Azerbaijani government also hopes to forge connections between the major event of this year within the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (CICA) and the global COP, when the entire world gathers in Baku to discuss the global community's environmental agenda. I believe this approach is very harmonious, and it reflects the essence of CICA," he said.
Kairat Sarybay pointed out that CICA is not exclusive to Asia.
"CICA is a worldwide development process. Furthermore, Asia is becoming more and more significant in both global politics and global economics. This is the first event as a result. And scheduled for 2026, the Summit is an even more significant occasion. We've decided in advance to concentrate on the fall of 2026, when Baku is expected to have lovely, sunny weather. The globe over, Baku is renowned for its warmth and bright weather. Thus, I believe that going into the summit, we'll have fresh, intriguing decisions to make as well as newly established, significant organizations under the Azerbaijani chairmanship," he said.
The Secretary General pointed out that the priorities of the Azerbaijani chairmanship will be presented at the CICA Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Baku in the fall.
"However, I can already assume that some topics, like the one about sustainable interconnectedness, are relevant for the entire CICA space and are important not only for Kazakhstan, the current chairman, but also for Azerbaijan, as the coordinator of the corresponding direction of the Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures "on the development of safe transport corridors." Because of the difficulties posed by today's interconnection, we must create as many alternate routes of contact as we can and make as much use of roadways, trains, airplanes, and other forms of communication, including digital ones," he noted.
As Kairat Sarybay pointed out, Azerbaijan has created a plan to improve communication between CICA countries in the process of creating safe corridors.
"In general, Azerbaijan takes an extremely active part in all CICA forums, including the business council and the youth council. Thus, a lot of work is being done to improve connectivity, but as I mentioned, it is insufficient. The pandemic has made it clear that we must fully and truly embrace our interconnectedness. Transport corridors are just one aspect of this; other aspects include harmonizing customs laws, epidemiology services' work, and the transportation industry's provision of "green" lanes for essential goods like food, medication, and other priority items," Sarybay said.
At the same time, the Secretary General pointed out that CICA takes a broader stance and hasn't started working on any projects to build particular transit routes yet.
"At the same time, for CICA member states, certain priorities are obvious. I know about the close cooperation of the countries of Central Asia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, where Armenia also wants to be involved. And I think that this will probably be correct; it will serve the cause of regional peace and the cause of developing the connection of Central Asia through the South Caucasus to Türkiye and Europe," Kairat Sarybay said.
According to him, within the CICA, individual countries will advance the interconnection theme to establish favorable framework circumstances for the growth of designated corridors.
"Since Asia is the largest, most populous, and home to many of the world's technical innovators, its interconnection will inevitably lead to greater global interconnectedness. And I believe that if, within the CICA, we can create harmonious framework conditions for the development of interconnectedness as a concept, then each individual corridor will bring specific benefits to each specific CICA participating state," the Secretary General said.
