ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Kazakhstan on Wednesday to attend the 6th CICA Summit (Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia) being held in Astana from October 12-13.

The prime minister is expected to have bilateral meetings with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkiye, and Azerbaijan on the sidelines of the summit. In bilateral meetings, the prime minister would focus on energy, power and connectivity.

According to reports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested the secretaries of Power Division, Petroleum Division, and Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives to share relevant material for inclusion in the brief for the prime minister.

The Commerce Ministry has held meetings to finalize the Transit Trade Agreement and put forth solutions to hurdles impacting bilateral trade and discuss avenues for trade expansion. Bilateral trade volume with Kazakhstan is low despite the presence of 170 Pakistani companies in the country.

The Ministry of Interior is holding meetings with its Kazakh counterpart to identify obstacles in liberalizing visa regimes and providing solutions for legal frameworks by both sides. The Petroleum Ministry is discussing the possibilities of gas and petroleum import with Kazakhstan.

CICA unites 27 countries of the region including Russia, China and India covering over 90 percent of Asia. It was created at the initiative of Kazakhstan’s first President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1992 to ensure peace, security and stability in Asia.

Thirty years ago, at the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly First President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed the idea of creating a conference on peace in Asia.

Since then, CICA has become the largest regional intergovernmental forum in Asia with 27 member states, along with nine countries and five international organizations having observer status.

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