(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 19. Azerbaijan'schairmanship will make a significant contribution to the mainobjectives of the conference on Interaction and Confidence BuildingMeasures in Asia (CICA), Kairat Sarybay, the Secretary General ofthe CICA, told Trend in an exclusive interview.
"The main expectation from the Azerbaijani chairmanship of CICAis to contribute to the causes of collaboration, communication, andpeace. This is our international organization's primary objectiveand direction. Thus, I believe these fundamental foundations of thehuman community will benefit greatly from Azerbaijan'schairmanship,” he said.
According to him, Azerbaijan has a great deal of experiencechairing regional and international organizations, from the UN tothe Non-Aligned Movement, which has recently had a remarkablechairmanship given its substantial institutional contribution.
"I think that interesting days await us during the years ofAzerbaijan's chairmanship. We anticipate holding a meeting of theCouncil of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Ministerial Council) in2024. Furthermore, since we have a preliminary concept andagreement, the Azerbaijani government also hopes to forgeconnections between the major event of this year within the Councilof Ministers of Foreign Affairs (CICA) and the global COP, when theentire world gathers in Baku to discuss the global community'senvironmental 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 toAsia.
"CICA is a worldwide development process. Furthermore, Asia isbecoming more and more significant in both global politics andglobal economics. This is the first event as a result. Andscheduled for 2026, the Summit is an even more significantoccasion. We've decided in advance to concentrate on the fall of2026, when Baku is expected to have lovely, sunny weather. Theglobe over, Baku is renowned for its warmth and bright weather, 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," hesaid.
The Secretary General pointed out that the priorities of theAzerbaijani chairmanship will be presented at the CICA Council ofMinisters of Foreign Affairs in Baku in the fall.
"However, I can already assume that some topics, like the oneabout sustainable interconnectedness, are relevant for the entireCICA space and are important not only for Kazakhstan, the currentchairman, but also for Azerbaijan, as the coordinator of thecorresponding direction of the Catalogue of Confidence BuildingMeasures "on the development of safe transport corridors." Becauseof the difficulties posed by today's interconnection, we mustcreate as many alternate routes of contact as we can and make asmuch use of roadways, trains, airplanes, and other forms ofcommunication, including digital ones," he noted.
As Kairat Sarybay pointed out, Azerbaijan has created a plan toimprove communication between CICA countries in the process ofcreating safe corridors.
"In general, Azerbaijan takes an extremely active part in allCICA forums, including the business council and the youth council, a lot of work is being done to improve connectivity, but as Imentioned, it is insufficient. The pandemic has made it clear thatwe must fully and truly embrace our interconnectedness. Transportcorridors are just one aspect of this; other aspects includeharmonizing customs laws, epidemiology services' work, and thetransportation industry's provision of "green" lanes for essentialgoods like food, medication, and other priority items," Sarybaysaid.
At the same time, the Secretary General pointed out that CICAtakes a broader stance and hasn't started working on any projectsto build particular transit routes yet.
"At the same time, for CICA member states, certain prioritiesare obvious. I know about the close cooperation of the countries ofCentral Asia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, where Armenia also wants tobe involved. And I think that this will probably be correct; itwill serve the cause of regional peace and the cause of developingthe connection of Central Asia through the South Caucasus toTürkiye and Europe," Kairat Sarybay said.
According to him, within the CICA, individual countries willadvance the interconnection theme to establish favorable frameworkcircumstances for the growth of designated corridors.
"Since Asia is the largest, most populous, and home to many ofthe world's technical innovators, its interconnection willinevitably lead to greater global interconnectedness. And I believethat if, within the CICA, we can create harmonious frameworkconditions for the development of interconnectedness as a concept,then each individual corridor will bring specific benefits to eachspecific CICA participating state," the Secretary General said.
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