HE Qatar's Deputy Premier Al Mahmoud Arrives in Shanghai

Shanghai, May 19 (QNA) -HE Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Ahmad bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud arrived here on Monday for a visit to China during which leads his country's delegation to the 4th summit of the heads of state and prime ministers of the member states to the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) which kicks off here tomorrow, Tuesday and runs for two days. HE al mahmoud and the accompanying delegation were welcomed upon their arrival at Shanghai airport by HE Sultan Bin Salmeen Al-Mansoori , Qatar's Ambassador to China and a number of officials of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Shanghai department. The CICA is an inter-governmental forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia. It is a forum based on the recognition that there is close link between peace, security and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world. The idea of convening the CICA was first proposed by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on 5 October 1992, at the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. The Shanghai summit is expected to be the 4th biggest ever summit in history of the said summit sessions where about 40 delegations of the CICA member states and the international organizations are taking part. The third CICA Summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey on 8 June 2010 with participation of the Heads of State/Government of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Turkey; Deputy Heads of State/Government of Iraq and Vietnam; and Special Envoys of China, Egypt, India, Israel, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Palestine, Tajikistan, Thailand and United Arab Emirates. Uzbekistan was the only member state that was not represented at the Summit. For the first time in the short history of CICA, Chairmanship passed from Kazakhstan to Turkey. Iraq and Vietnam were admitted as new members of CICA taking the membership to twenty two. Bangladesh was accorded the status of observer. The Summit adopted the declaration, Constructing cooperative approach to interaction and security in Asia and Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Secretariat, its Personnel and Representatives of Members of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. The declaration reflected CICAs stand and views on important issues of security and cooperation in Asia and other parts of the world including terrorism, disarmament, illicit drugs, global financial crisis, environment as well as situation in Afghanistan and Middle East. The declaration also reiterated commitment of the member states to carry forward the CICA process and reaffirmed the importance of initiating deliberations on security issues in accordance with the provisions of the CICA Catalogue of CBMs. During the summit, Israel was condemned by all members save itself for its Gaza flotilla raid, which Turkish president Abdullah Gul welcomed in saying Israel was isolated and "would suffer the consequences of its mistake against Turkey." (END)