The 7th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was held in Baku, Azerbaijan yesterday to deliberate on deepening regional cooperation, building mutual trust and promoting peace in Asia.
Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh led the Indian delegation to the Summit. Addressing the Plenary, Mr Singh highlighted India’s guiding philosophy of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam, and firm commitment to fostering inclusive and consensus-based multilateral cooperation.
He also underlined India’s active participation in CICA activities and exhorted CICA member states to unite against all forms of terrorism. Mr Singh also reiterated that all regional connectivity projects must be transparent, financially viable, inclusive, and strictly respectful of the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of all Member States.
The Ministry of External Affairs has said that the Summit also adopted the Baku declaration, which, highlighted the relevance of connectivity, digitalization and sustainable growth for all dimensions of confidence building measures for attainment of development in Asia. India, a founding member of CICA, remains committed to the CICA process as an important platform for fostering inclusive dialogue, consensus-building and cooperation across Asia.
