Turkish top diplomat attends Asian cooperation meeting

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's top diplomat on Thursday participated in a videoconference session of the Special Ministerial Meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

During the meeting, Tajikistan transferred the CICA chairmanship to Kazakhstan, followed by the Kazakh delegation's presentation on its vision for 2020-2022.

"Attended #CICA FMs VTC Meeting. Thanked #Tajikistan for her term&congratulated #Kazakhstan as the incoming Chair. Must work together in all areas to make the 21st century the Asian century, in line with our Asia Anew vision," Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.

On Wednesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the cooperation among CICA member states during the novel coronavirus, as well as the challenges brought by the pandemic, would also be discussed in the meeting.

The CICA is a multi-national forum seeking to promote peace, security and stability in Asia.

Last year, the fifth summit was attended by the presidents of Turkey, Tajikistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

The sixth summit of the CICA foreign ministers was slated for 2020 and the sixth heads of states summit is scheduled for 2022.