On April 28, 2016, after the 5th Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Foreign Minister Wang Yi introduced to Chinese and foreign journalists the main consensus and outcomes achieved in the meeting.
Wang Yi pointed out that the 5th Meeting of CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs is the first such meeting since China took over the rotating presidency. Forty-two delegations, including foreign ministers from CICA member states and observer states as well as heads of relevant international organizations, attended the meeting.
Wang Yi stated that at the opening ceremony on the morning, President Xi Jinping put forward China's views and propositions on how to implement the vision on common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security in Asia and foster a security governance model with Asian features. This is another significant contribution that China has made to CICA's development process since it put forward the Asian security concept at the CICA Shanghai Summit in May 2014.
Wang Yi expressed that under the theme of "promoting security through dialogue", participants conducted a full discussion on the current situation of security and development in Asia and how to realize regional peace and development during the one-day-long meeting.
As the consensus and outcome, the meeting released the Declaration of the Fifth Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (Promoting Peace, Security, Stability and Sustainable Development in Asia Through Dialogue), and committed to abiding by the UN Charter, the basic norms of international law, and the objectives and principles of CICA, so as to seek common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security as well as dedicate to building a security environment that fulfills the expectation of the member states based on commitment to mutual trust, good neighbourliness and friendliness, and cooperation among member states.
We appealed to respect religious and cultural diversity of different countries as well as enhance mutual understanding and cooperation through civilization dialogues, so as to advance regional peace and stability.
We elaborated our common ground on current regional hot-spot issues, calling for relevant parties to settle all kinds of disputes in a peaceful way according to the universally acknowledged principles of international law.
We had an in-depth exchange of views on the main security threats faced with the region such as terrorism, drug smuggling, weapons trafficking and transnational organized crimes, stressing that the UN should play a core role in resolving above problems.
Wang Yi said that the meeting looked back on the achievements that the CICA progress had gained in all fields since the CICA Shanghai Summit in 2014. The meeting reached extensive consensus on how to ensure a good job of the CICA in the coming two years and decided to continue stepping up CICA's efforts in the formulation and implementation of measures in five main fields including military and politics, new threats and challenges, economy, people-to-people and cultural engagement, and environmental protection, elevate cooperation level, and improve mechanism building, so as to push the CICA to make more contributions to maintaining regional peace and stability and promoting common development and prosperity of member states.
Wang Yi expressed that the meeting also adopted the 2016-2018 Cooperation Initiative of CICA Member States for Drug Control, the 2016-2018 CICA Initiative for the Implementation of Confidence-Building Measures in the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and other cooperative documents.
Wang Yi noted that China is about to start its 2016-2018 presidency of the CICA. In the coming two years. China will fully perform its duties as the rotating presidency, strengthen communication and coordination with other member states, and strive to promote CICA dialogues and cooperation for new achievements.