President Rouhani Due In China On May 20

Tehran, May 18, IRNA – President Hassan Rouhani is to visit China on Tuesday (May 20) to attend the fourth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) to be held in the city of Shanghai. CICA is an inter-governmental forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia. The idea of convening the CICA was first proposed by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in October 1992, at the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. A senior official at the Presidential Office told IRNA on Sunday that the CICA summit is to be held in two morning and afternoon sessions on Wednesday. Parviz Esmaeli added President Rouhani is to address the summit and will later hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from a number of the participating countries on the sidelines of the event. Later on Wednesday, President Rouhani is to meet with China-residing Iranians, Esmaeli said. On Thursday, the Iranian President is to meet his Chinese counterpart and will later attend a luncheon given to his honor. President Rouhani will end his visit to Shanghai by attending a press conference later on Thursday. CICA summits are held every four years while its ministerial meetings are conducted every two years. The first CICA summit was held on June 4, 2002 with participation of 16 member states where the Almaty Act, the charter of the CICA, was adopted. Presently, CICA has 24 members after Bahrain and Cambodia joined the gathering in 2011./end