Asia-Pacific
CICA summit in Baku admits Laos as a member and adopts the Baku Declaration
Leaders at the 7th CICA summit on 15 October approved Laos as a new member and adopted the Baku Declaration, while Azerbaijan sought to extend its chairmanship, the Azerbaijani presidency reports.
The seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was held in Baku on 15 October, with Azerbaijan in the chair. According to the website of the President of Azerbaijan, the heads of state and government who attended approved the accession of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic as a member and adopted the Baku Declaration.
Opening the meeting, President Ilham Aliyev described the admission of Laos as “an important event that demonstrates the Conference’s growing importance and its development as a more inclusive platform for dialogue in Asia”. The accession decision was taken as the third item on the agenda.
Chairmanship and institution-building
In his own speech, Aliyev said Azerbaijan had given priority during its chairmanship to transport, connectivity, digitalisation, environment, tourism, education and science. He said CICA is “institutionally and legally stronger” as a result, and thanked member states for their support for the idea of prolonging Azerbaijan’s chairmanship for another two years.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan said the Baku Declaration “will serve as a solid foundation for future work”, and noted that member states had agreed at the sixth summit in Astana in 2022 to turn the Conference into a full international institution. He said Kazakhstan looks forward to the adoption of a CICA Charter. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan said, according to the Azerbaijani report, that he supported the candidacy of Azerbaijan’s representative for CICA Secretary-General and Azerbaijan’s intention to extend its chairmanship until 2028.
Connectivity and the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace
Tokayev said Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan marked the summit by jointly launching the Trans-Caspian fibre-optic line along the Caspian seabed, which he called a project that “will ensure faster and safer data transmission across Eurasia”. He also pointed to the Caspian Green Energy Corridor, designed to link electricity grids and deliver power to European markets via the Black Sea, and to plans to raise Kazakh crude oil shipments through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Aliyev devoted part of his speech to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, giving Azerbaijan’s account of its history and criticising what he called double standards in the handling of interstate conflicts. These are the Azerbaijani president’s statements and positions. On the present situation he said Azerbaijan has been living in peace for a little more than a year and that the peace “is still fragile, and it needs to be protected and consolidated”. Tokayev, for his part, said Kazakhstan welcomes “the reconciliation achieved between Azerbaijan and Armenia”.
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Other leaders and ministers used the Baku gathering for bilateral contacts. Geopolitiki has reported on Wang Yi and Fidan meet in Baku: China readout cites Belt and Road, Middle Corridor and COP31, and on the latest Armenian position in Armenia: Pashinyan proposes an enclave swap with Azerbaijan, “not a single square kilometre less”.
