CICA summit to draw 11 heads of state

The upcoming summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) will gather 11 foreign heads of state, one head of government and 10 leaders of international organizations, a senior Chinese diplomat revealed on Sunday.

The summit will be held in Shanghai from May 20 to 21.

The 11 foreign heads of states are the presidents of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping at a press briefing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will pay state visits to China on the sidelines of the summit, said Cheng.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sun and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will also attend the conference, he added.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will come as special representative of Turkish President Abdullah Gul. Gul cannot visit China as scheduled due to a deadly coal mine explosion in western Turkey.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold bilateral meetings with foreign leaders on the sidelines of the summit, Cheng said.

The CICA was established in 1992 as a forum for dialogue and consultations. It now has 24 member countries and 13 observers.

The CICA member countries have nailed down confidence-building measures in the areas of military and politics, new threats and challenges, economy, culture and ecology.