Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan will represent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the Seventh Meeting of the Council of Heads of State and Government of the Conference on Cooperation and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which will be held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The summit, hosted by CICA Term President Azerbaijan, will bring together member states, observer countries and representatives of CICA partner and observer international organizations.
According to information received from Ministry of Foreign Affairs sources, 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, is expected to bring to the fore 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". It was stated that at the summit, the "Baku Declaration" and the "Declaration on Cooperation in the Field of Occupational Safety and Health", which will be the final document, are expected to be adopted and the participation of Laos as a new member is expected to be announced.
TOPICS THAT WILL BE FEATURED IN FİDAN'S MEETINGS
Minister Fidan is planned to address the summit meeting and hold bilateral meetings. It was noted that Fidan is expected to emphasize the importance of producing common solutions based on consultation, compromise, mutual trust and regional ownership in the face of challenges caused by global crises and geopolitical developments, in his speech at the summit and in the bilateral meetings he will hold on the margins of the summit. It was stated that Fidan was also expected to underline that priority should be given to preserving and strengthening effective multilateral diplomacy.
It is expected that Fidan will state that Israel continues its genocide in Gaza, expands its occupation, and prevents the delivery of adequate humanitarian aid, thus condemning the Palestinian people to harsh living conditions, and emphasizes the urgency of ending this dire situation. Fidan is also expected to note 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.
THE PALESTINE ISSUE WILL BE DISCUSSED
Fidan is expected to reiterate that the international community must increase its pressure on Israel in order to establish a just and lasting peace on the basis of a two-state solution. It was reported that Fidan 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.
Fidan is expected to underline the dimension of regional connectivity projects supported by Türkiye, especially the Middle Corridor and Development Path, that produce stability and support prosperity in the geography where CICA members are located. Fidan is expected to state that the harmonization of the Middle Corridor Initiative and the Belt and Road Initiative will strengthen regional connectivity and economic cooperation.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE ARE ON THE AGENDA
Fidan is expected to emphasize 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 providing equal accessibility for everyone. It is expected that Fidan will draw attention to the need to take determined and concrete steps by demonstrating a strong political will to combat global environmental problems and climate change, which directly affect efforts towards sustainable development.
Fidan is expected to emphasize that Türkiye, as the host and chairman of the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31), will continue to play a leading role in eliminating the negative effects of climate change on fragile regions.
CICA'S ROLE IN ASIA
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; It is carried out under five main headings: military-political dimension, economic dimension, human dimension, environmental dimension and new threats and challenges dimension.
To date, the CICA Presidencies have been assumed by Kazakhstan, Türkiye, People's Republic of China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, respectively. During its Presidency, Azerbaijan identified connectivity, digitalization and advancement of sustainable development goals, which will contribute to economic development, as priority areas through sectoral cooperation and a series of Confidence Building Measures activities. Azerbaijan also carried out activities to accelerate the transformation of CICA into a full-fledged international organization.
Türkiye has been strongly supporting 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 Catalogue, 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. Turkey hosted the CICA Third Summit in Istanbul on June 8, 2010 and assumed the Term Presidency between 2010 and 2014. Türkiye, which played an active role in the institutionalization steps during this period, led the efforts to gain a political-military vision of the organization and increase its global visibility.
