Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 25
Trend:
The chairmanship of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICMA) has moved from China to Tajikistan, Sputnik Tajikistan reported, citing the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan.
As part of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, a special meeting of Foreign Ministers of the CICMA member states has been held, the message says.
"During the meeting, the ceremony of transferring the chairmanship of the CICMA from the People's Republic of China (2014-2018) to the Republic of Tajikistan (2018-2020) has been held. Khabibollo Mirzoyev has been appointed the new Executive Director of the Secretariat, whose candidacy has been unanimously supported by all 27 member countries of the CICMA", the message says.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kairat Abdrakhmanov expressed gratitude to the PRC and the retiring Executive Director Gong Jianwei for their support and contribution to the development of the CICMA process. He reminded that during the Chinese chairmanship, a new and important phase of the Conference had begun, with the purpose to ensure sustainable security and cooperation in Asia.
The foreign minister also focused on the issue of expansion of the CICMA during the Chinese chairmanship through accession to its membership in July 2018 of the 27th member - Sri Lanka.
"The minister drew special attention of participants of the meeting to the initiative of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev on the establishment on the basis of the Conference of the Organization for Security and Development in Asia and called for further discussion of this issue at the expert level," the press release reads.
The establishment of CICMA was initiated by Nazarbayev on October 5, 1992. The CICMA is an inter-state forum for dialogue, consultation, decision-making and implementation of measures based on consensus in order to solve the security problems in Asia. To date, the 27 Asian states are members of the CICMA, the eight countries and five international organizations have the status of observers at the Conference.