FM Zarif meets with CICA executive director

The Iranian top diplomat has held a meeting with Kairat Sarybay, the Executive Director of the Conference on Interaction & Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) on the sidelines of his 2-day trip to Tajikistan capital of Dushanbe to participate in a ministerial meeting of the Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process initiative and to meet with the Central Ascian country's high-ranking officials.

In the meeting with Zarif this morning, the CICA executive director expressed his appreciation for the participation in and cooperation of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the CICA regional activities and explained the CICA plans to hold a meeting of member states' ministers and a summit of CICA member states.

Referring to the end of the period of unipolarity and Westernism in the international system, the Iranian Foreign Minister, for his part, stressed the importance of Asia and the countries of the region in the current equations of international relations.

Pledging Iran's support for strengthening CICA and member states' cooperation, Zarif praised and appreciated Kazakhstan's role in the Iran nuclear talks, as well as the Astana peace talks, as the only effective way to restore peace to Syria.

According to the official website of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, during his stay in Tajikistan, the top Iranian diplomat will attend a ministerial meeting of the Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process initiative (March 29-30, 2021) and also hold talks with Tajik officials on Tehran-Dushanbe relations.

The Heart of Asia is comprised of 15 countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan Republic, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Heart of Asia supporters include the United States, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Finland, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Britain.

The previous meetings of the Heart of Asia conference have been held from 2011 to 2019 in Istanbul, Kabul, Almaty, Beijing, Islamabad, Amritsar, Baku and Istanbul.

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