CICA summit kicks off in Istanbul with Iran participation

Istabnbul, Turkey, June 8, IRNA - The Summit meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) started its work here Tuesday with the participation of a number of regional heads of state including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.

Established in 1992, CICA currently has 20 member states including Azerbaijan, Iran, Afghanistan, China, Egypt, India, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, South Korea, Russia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

Vietnam and Iraq are also attending the summit as new members of the CICA.

President Ahmadinejad arrived in Turkey Monday afternoon to attend the two-day event.

A number of senior regional leaders are also taking part in the CICA summit meeting including President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of the Republic of Kazakhstan, President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin.

The summit is chaired by Turkish President Abdullah Gul who stressed in his opening speech the need for expanding political, military and security cooperation among Asian states.

Turkey took over the rotating presidency of the CICA from Kazakhstan./end


President Gul said that Turkey would try to help the promotion of regional cooperation during his two-year term as CICA’s president.

The summit is being held amid calls of the world public opinion for punishment of the Zionist leaders for Israel’s savage attack on a peace flotilla of ships sailing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on May 31.

The fatal attack left several dead and many more injured.

Reports said that representatives from the US, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Ukraine, the United Nations and Qatar are also present in the summit.