President Rouhani To Pay Official Visit To Shanghai

Tehran, May 14, IRNA – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will visit Shanghai next week at the official invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, it was announced Wednesday. A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in China added that President Rouhaniˈs visit will take place on MAy 20-22 to attend the fourth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit. The Chinese government has also invited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Russian President Vladimir Putin to the meeting. The CICA is an international forum for strengthening cooperation to ensure peace, security and stability in Asia. The idea of the CICA was first announced by President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev at the 47th UN General Assembly session October 5, 1992. The CICA Summit is held once every four years and CICA foreign ministerial meeting is held once every two years. The CICA member-states include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, South Korea, Russia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, the UAE, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The non-member states include Armenia, Bhutan, Brunei, Cyprus, Georgia, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Taiwan, East Timor, Turkmenistan and Yemen. The observer member-states are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and the US. The Arab League and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are also international observer organizations./end