A CICA summit will be held on 8 June 2010 in Turkey. The "Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia" was set up on the initiative of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the independence of his country. It aims to establish norms of international relations in Asia.
The CICA meets every two years and now has a permanent secretariat based in Kazakhstan. It is credited with creating the "Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in Central Asia (Semipalatinsk Treaty, signed in 2006 by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan).
President Abdullah Gül will chair the rotating presidency of the Conference. Considering the unusual size of this forum, bringing together 18 States which are not always on good terms (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, India, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Republic of Korea, Russia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey), as well as the current international agenda (Tehran Protocol on nuclear issues, the Israeli attacks against Turkey), this meeting is likely to take on particular importance.
Israel could decide to boycott the summit. Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, who had not initially planned to attend, will make the journey to Istanbul. He is expected to hold private discussions with the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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