The initiative to convene the CICA was first put forward on the 5th of October 1992 by the President of Kazakhstan, Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, during the 47th session of the UN General Assembly. The objective of this initiative was to establish an effective and universal organisation for peace and security in Asia.
The main documents regulating the activities of CICA, which includes 28 members, are the Declaration on the Principles Guiding Relations between the CICA Member States adopted in 1999 and the Almaty Act adopted in 2002. The administrative body of CICA is the Secretariat, located in Astana. The main decision-making bodies of the Conference are a) the Council of Heads of State and Government (Summit – the supreme authority, convening every four years); b) the Council of Foreign Ministers (Ministerial Council – the body convening in accordance with the Rules of Procedure every four years), and c) the Senior Officials Committee (SOC – the structure, holding meetings not less than twice a year).
Azerbaijan was one of the first countries to support the initiative of the first President of Kazakhstan, His Excellency Nursultan Nazarbayev, to convene CICA. Currently, Azerbaijan is an active member of CICA and spearheads numerous initiatives within the Conference. It acts as the coordinator of the confidence-building measure in the field of “Development of secure and effective systems of transportation corridors”. In this regard, the Azerbaijani side hosted a meeting of experts in Baku, on 20-21 April 2011. On 23 September 2021, Azerbaijan organized the next meeting of experts in virtual format on the topic of “Promoting cooperation in order to strengthen the digitalization in the transport and logistics operations”. Moreover, the third conference of the Youth Council of CICA was held in Baku on the theme of “International Youth Cooperation in the context of Peace, Security and Sustainability”, on 13-14 April 2018.
The final declarations of the CICA Summits, as well as the documents of the Ministerial Meetings, have consistently condemned separatism as a threat to the stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, and emphasized that relationship among Member States should be built on the principles of respect for each other’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and internationally recognised borders.
“Road Map for CICA Transformation” into a full-fledged international organization was adopted at the informal meeting of the CICA Council of Foreign Ministers which was held on September 21, 2023. At the moment, the work is underway for the implementation of the clusters reflected in the Road Map.
By the decision of the CICA Ministerial Council dated March 19, 2024, the Chairmanship of the Conference for the years 2024-2026 was conferred on Azerbaijan. In the framework of its CICA Chairmanship, Azerbaijan is also going to chair the Business Council & the Youth Council of CICA for the same period.