President Aliyev attends 4th CICA summit in Shanghai
By Aynur Jafarova
The 4th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) started in Shanghai on May 20.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who embarked on a working visit to China on May 19, also attended the summit.
The summit titled "Increasing dialogue, mutual trust and collaboration to build a new Asia that is peaceful, stable and cooperative" was attended by 10 presidents, high-ranking state and government officials, and heads of international and regional organizations.
The two-day event will feature discussions on the main theme and saw the adoption of a final declaration of the summit and admit new members to the organization.
China will assume the chairmanship for 2014-2016 at the 4th Summit.
The 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 close link between peace, security and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world.
The idea of convening the CICA was first proposed by Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan, in October 1992, at the 47th Session of the UN General Assembly.
Bilateral meeting
As part of the China visit, President Aliyev met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Later, China held a reception in honor of the heads of state and government who arrived in Shanghai to attend the summit.
President Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva participated in the reception.
President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan welcomed President Aliyev and Mehriban Aliyeva.