BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 19. The regular meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CMFA) of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) will be held this year in Baku, the Secretary General of the CICA Kairat Sarybay told Trend in an exclusive interview, TurkicWorld reports.

"I think that interesting days await us during the years of Azerbaijan’s chairmanship. We anticipate holding a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in 2024. Furthermore, since we have a preliminary concept and agreement, the Azerbaijani government also hopes to forge connections between the major event of this year within the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (CICA) and the global COP, when the entire world gathers in Baku to discuss the global community's environmental agenda. I believe this approach is very harmonious, and it reflects the essence of CICA," he said.

Speaking about the priorities of the Azerbaijani chairmanship, Kairat Sarybay stressed that the priorities will be presented at the CICA Ministerial Council in the fall in Baku.

"However, I can already assume that some topics, like the one about sustainable interconnectedness, are relevant for the entire CICA space and are important not only for Kazakhstan, the current chairman, but also for Azerbaijan, as the coordinator of the corresponding direction of the Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures "on the development of safe transport corridors." Because of the difficulties posed by today's interconnection, we must create as many alternate routes of contact as we can and make as much use of roadways, trains, airplanes, and other forms of communication, including digital ones," he added.

To note, according to the recommendation given at the meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials of the Council for Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) on March 14, the Republic of Azerbaijan was elected as the Chairman of CICA for 2024–2026 by the decision of the CICA Council of Foreign Ministers on March 19, 2024.