Islamabad, 11 October 2022 (TDI): The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, will travel to Kazakhstan to attend the 6th CICA Summit.
The CICA (Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia) Summit will be held on 12-13 October in Astana.
Details of Visit
The Prime Minister of Pakistan is expected to have bilateral meetings with the leaders of different countries on the sidelines of the CICA Summit. These include Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkiye, and Azerbaijan.
During these meetings, the Prime Minister would focus particularly on the areas of energy, power, and connectivity. The Prime Minister will be accompanied by senior federal cabinet members during his visit.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested the secretaries of respective ministries to share relevant material including specific briefs and talking points for inclusion in the brief for the Prime Minister.
In this regard, the Petroleum Ministry of Pakistan is already in touch with Kazakh Petroleum Ministry to discuss possibilities of gas and petroleum import and gas swap options with Kazakhstan.
The Interior Ministry of Pakistan has also held meetings with the Kazakh counterpart to identify obstacles in liberalizing visa regimes. Moreover, the Commerce Ministry held meetings to finalize Transit Trade Agreement.
Although there are 170 Pakistani companies in Kazakhstan, the bilateral trade volume between the countries is quite low.
CICA summit
The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is a multi-national forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security, and stability in Asia.
The first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, proposed the idea of creating a conference on peace in Asia. He gave this idea in the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
CICA has since become the largest regional intergovernmental forum in Asia with 27 member states. There are also nine countries and five international organizations having observer status.
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