According to information obtained from Ministry of Foreign Affairs sources, Fidan will attend the Seventh Meeting of the CICA Council of Heads of State and Government, representing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The summit, hosted by CICA Term President Azerbaijan, will bring together member states, observer countries and representatives of CICA partner and observer international organizations.
At the summit, which is important in terms of revealing the common priorities and areas of cooperation of the actors who play a decisive role in global politics and economy in Asia, the issues that Azerbaijan put on its agenda during its term presidency with the theme of "Stronger CICA in Asia, Connectivity, Digitalization and Sustainable Development" are expected to come to the fore.
At the summit, it is envisaged that the "Baku Declaration" and the "Declaration on Cooperation in the Field of Occupational Safety and Health", which will serve as the final document, will be adopted and Laos' participation as a new member will be announced.
Fidan will hold many bilateral meetings
Minister Fidan is planned to address the summit meeting and hold bilateral meetings.
In his speech at the summit and in the bilateral meetings he will hold on the margins of the summit, Minister Fidan is expected to emphasize the importance of producing common solutions based on consultation, consensus, mutual trust and regional ownership in the face of challenges caused by global crises and geopolitical developments, and underline that priority should be given to preserving and strengthening effective multilateral diplomacy in this context.
Emphasis on genocide in Gaza
Fidan stated that Israel continues its genocide in Gaza, expanded its occupation, and condemned the Palestinian people to harsh living conditions by preventing the delivery of adequate amounts of humanitarian aid, and emphasized the urgency of ending this dire situation, and noted that Israel, which disrupts the implementation of the Peace Plan, encourages illegal settler terrorism in the West Bank, and advances its annexation policies, constitutes the most important obstacle to establishing permanent peace and stability in the region, and two He is expected to reiterate that the international community must increase its pressure on Israel in order to establish a fair and lasting peace on the basis of a state solution.
Fidan, who is expected to point out the importance of evaluating regional cooperation opportunities in a mutually beneficial manner by taking joint steps in various fields, especially economy, trade, digitalization, energy, connectivity and technology, under the umbrella of CICA, will underline the dimension of the regional connectivity projects supported by Turkey, especially the Middle Corridor and Development Road, that produce stability and support prosperity in the geography where CICA members are located, and that the harmonization of the Middle Corridor Initiative and the Belt and Road Initiative will increase regional connectivity and economic cooperation. It is planned to state that it will strengthen the
At the Summit, Fidan emphasized the importance of developing emerging technologies, especially digital transformation and artificial intelligence, in a framework that is human-oriented, reliable, respectful of the digital sovereignty of countries and provides equal accessibility for everyone, pointed out that a strong political will should be taken and determined and concrete steps should be taken to combat global environmental problems and climate change, which directly affect efforts towards sustainable development, and stated that Turkey, as the host and chairman of the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31), has the negative impact of climate change on fragile regions. It is expected to emphasize that it will continue to play a leading role in eliminating the effects of
CICA
In the Asian geography, where there are no effective multilateral organizations in the field of security, CICA is the only structure that brings together 28 countries, including actors with different priorities, on a common dialogue ground.
The organization covers 90 percent of the Asian continent and more than half of the world's population in terms of surface area.
Cooperation between members is carried out under five main headings: military-political dimension, economic dimension, humanitarian dimension, environmental dimension and new threats and challenges dimension.
To date, the CICA Presidencies have been assumed by Kazakhstan, Türkiye, China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, respectively.
During its term presidency, Azerbaijan identified connectivity, digitalization and advancement of sustainable development goals that will contribute to economic development as priority areas through sectoral collaborations and a series of Confidence Building Measures activities, and carried out activities to accelerate the transformation process of CICA into a full-fledged international organization.
In the "Baku Declaration", which will be the outcome document of the Seventh Summit to be held in Baku tomorrow, it is expected to include the activities carried out by the member countries in areas such as environment, artificial intelligence, connectivity, sustainable development and the development of SMEs, under the leadership of 2024-2026 Term President Azerbaijan, and also to draw attention to the transformation process of CICA, UN-centered multilateralism and the role of the organization in increasing cooperation in Asia.
In the document "Declaration on Cooperation in the Fields of Occupational Safety and Health", it is envisaged to note the priority given by member countries to human life, their will to develop their management capacities in this field, and the importance of sharing knowledge and experience.
Türkiye and CICA
Türkiye has strongly supported the work of CICA, of which it is one of the founding members, from the very beginning.
In addition to the coordination of the "New Challenges and Threats (general)" priority area of the Confidence Building Measures Catalog, Turkey is also the co-coordinator of the "Military-Political" dimension, the "Development of Small and Medium Enterprises" and "Trade and Investment" priority areas under the "Economic" dimension, and the "Fight against Terrorism" priority area under the "New Challenges and Threats" dimension.
Türkiye hosted the CICA Third Summit in Istanbul on June 8, 2010, and held the Term Presidency between 2010 and 2014. During this period, Türkiye, which played an active role in the institutionalization steps, led the efforts to gain a political-military vision of the organization and increase its global visibility.
