BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Modern challenges and threats can only be addressed through dialogue, Bakhtiyor Mustafaev, deputy director of the Institute of Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, said at the 13th Meeting of the CICA Think Tank Forum on the theme "Resonance of Development and Security: Regional Cooperation and Governance in the Institutional Transformation of CICA" in Baku today, Trend reports.
"Modern challenges and threats can only be overcome through dialogue, taking into account each other's interests and observing recognized norms of international law. In these conditions, the willingness to bear collective responsibility for prosperity and sustainable development, as well as to develop a unified approach to current issues of regional and international security, is becoming more acute than ever," the analyst said.
According to Mustafaev, special attention is required to consolidate efforts to ensure long-term and sustainable peace in Afghanistan.
Restoring the socio-economic situation and implementing major infrastructure projects in this country will open up new strategic opportunities for all countries in the region.
The analyst also noted that the transformation process that the CICA is currently undergoing should receive practical content.
He emphasized the need to strengthen commitment to the fundamental principles of the organization, including mutual trust, equality, respect for cultural diversity, the desire for joint development, and the immutability of the consensus principle in decision-making.
At the 1992 UN General Assembly, Kazakhstan's then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). The Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between CICA Member States and the Almaty Act, approved in 1999 and 2002, respectively, are the organization's basic texts. Asian nations welcomed the CICA plan. The interested countries met for seven years to explore CICA modalities and create basic papers. On September 14, 1999, 15 member states attended the first CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting. CICA Member States adopted the Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations during this meeting.
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