BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 14.
The final decision regarding the membership of Laos in the
Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia
(CICA) is set to be approved at the Seventh Summit, which will take
place in Baku on October 15, bringing the total number of the
organization's member states to 29.


This was announced in a statement published on the official
website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.


According to the ministry, a signing ceremony regarding Laos's
membership in CICA was held in Baku on October 14.


The ceremony was attended by Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister
Jeyhun Bayramov, Laos's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister
Thongsavanh Phomvihane, CICA Secretary General Kairat Sarybay, and
a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan,
acting as the depository for the organization's founding
documents.


During the event, Thongsavanh Phomvihane signed the key founding
documents of CICA: the "Declaration on the principles guiding
relations between the CICA member states" (dated September 14,
1999) and the Almaty Act (dated June 4, 2022).


Speaking at the signing ceremony, the foreign ministers of
Azerbaijan and Laos, as well as the Secretary-General of CICA,
emphasized the significance of Laos's membership in the
organization, congratulated the country on this occasion, and
expressed their best wishes regarding its future membership.


CICA is a multi-national forum for enhancing cooperation towards
promoting peace, security and stability in Asia. It is a forum
based on the recognition that there is a close link between peace,
security and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world. The
Member States, while affirming their commitment to the UN Charter,
believe that peace and security in Asia can be achieved through
dialogue and cooperation leading to a common indivisible area of
security in Asia where all states co-exist peacefully and their
peoples live in peace, freedom and prosperity.


The two founding documents of CICA are the Declaration on the
Principles Guiding Relations between the CICA Member States adopted
at the First Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs held in Almaty
on 14 September 1999 and the Almaty Act, charter of CICA, adopted
at the First Summit held in Almaty on 4 June 2002. These two
documents became the stepping stone towards the future evolution of
CICA.