Azerbaijan is preparing to host one of its most significant multilateral diplomatic events of 2026: the Seventh Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), scheduled for 15 October in Baku. The gathering is bringing together senior representatives from countries that have very different geopolitical interests, including Israel, Türkiye, China, Russia, India, Iran and the Central Asian states. Besides, the presence of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and senior representatives of other major Asian powers reflects the forum’s growing diplomatic reach at a time of regional instability and intensifying competition over trade, security and strategic influence.
Moreover, the summit matters for three interconnected reasons: Azerbaijan's growing diplomatic role, the search for practical cooperation across Asia, and the opportunity for countries with competing interests to engage through a common diplomatic platform. It is also taking place against a difficult international backdrop, with tensions over the Middle East, conflicts affecting regional security, competition over transport corridors and growing efforts by Asian countries to diversify their economic partnerships. CICA is an intergovernmental forum designed to promote peace, security, confidence-building and cooperation across Asia.
It was proposed by Kazakhstan's then President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the United Nations General Assembly on 5 October 1992. The initiative emerged from a recognition that Asia needed more opportunities for dialogue between countries with different security concerns, political systems and foreign policy priorities. Its first summit took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on 4 June 2002.
Since then, the organisation has developed into a broad diplomatic platform whose members include countries with sharply different political systems, security priorities and international alignments. Its membership encompasses China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, Türkiye and several Central Asian and Middle Eastern states. This diversity is both its principal advantage and its central limitation.
CICA provides a setting in which countries can discuss shared concerns without having to agree on every geopolitical question. But consensus is difficult when members have conflicting interests, and the forum has no military alliance structure capable of enforcing collective security commitments. The previous summit, held in Astana in October 2022, launched a process to transform CICA into a fully fledged international organisation.
Azerbaijan has continued that work during its 2024–2026 chairmanship, with the drafting and proposed adoption of a CICA Charter among the principal objectives of the Baku summit. The document is intended to strengthen the organisation’s legal and institutional foundations. (CICA Secretariat) The summit therefore carries institutional significance as well as diplomatic symbolism. An agreed charter could provide a firmer basis for cooperation, although it would not automatically resolve the disagreements that have constrained regional diplomacy.
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