Azerbaijan President attends the event
The third summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was held here at the Ciragan palace.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the event.
The heads of state and government, participating in the event, were welcomed by Turkish President Abdullah Gul and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The meeting was opened by Nursultan Nazarbayev, who holds the rotating presidency of the Conference. The Kazakh President said confidence-related issues had started to gain more urgency.
Nursultan Nazarbayev described the organization`s activity over the past years as successful. President Nazarbayev underlined the Conference attached great importance to establishment of an area without nuclear weapons. He added "establishing peace and security across the world is of urgent necessity".
The Kazakh President said "today`s Asia is becoming an economic centre of the world", expressing assurance that realizing "Asia 20", an idea put forward by Mr. Nazarbayev, would increase the urgency of the issue.
Mr. Nazarbayev highlighted the importance of ensuring political stability in Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan, saying his country would make "every effort to fulfill these tasks" during its OSCE presidency.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul greeted heads of states and governments.
Mr. Gul vowed that during its two-year presidency of the CICA Turkey "will do its best so that the organization makes considerable successes".
"What we want to achieve is ensuring confidence and security throughout the world," said the Turkish leader, adding "expanding the dialogue among nations, increasing the role of social sphere is of great essence here".
Abdullah Gul said Turkey was ready to reach a reliable dialogue in Asia and that it would spare no efforts for the sake of democracy and prosperity in the region during its presidency.
Other heads of state and government delivered speeches.
President Ilham Aliyev also made remarks at the event.

AzerTAc