Kazakhstan hopes to be accepted into the ASEAN Member States in the CICA

Almaty. August 18. Silkroadnews - Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan hopes for membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as member or observer at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), reports the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
"The foreign minister of Kazakhstan shared his vision on strengthening cooperation with the ASEAN countries and the Association itself in multilateral venues such as the Conference on Interaction and Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Asia Cooperation Dialogue, a forum "Asia - Europe" (ASEM). Kazakhstan, as the initiator of the CICA, is in favour for signing between the CICA and the ASEAN countries Memorandum of Understanding, and hopes that a number of countries of association in the near future will be included in the CICA as members or observers", - said in a statement on Monday.
As noted in the press release, on August 18, MFA RK  held a meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrisov and the ambassadors of the ASEAN Member States accredited in Kazakhstan. The event was dedicated to the interaction of Kazakhstan in the framework of ASEAN and preparations for the upcoming tour of the Foreign Minister to the countries of South-East Asia with a visit to Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the participation in the 6th Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations (Bali, Indonesia) and the UN Summit on small Island States (Apia, Samoa).
The meeting was attended by the ambassadors of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Van Hoa, Republic of Indonesia Foster Gult, Malaysia Hidayat Abdul Hamid.
E. Idris expressed his gratitude to the Asian group forum "Asia - Europe" and, in particular, the ASEAN sub-group led by Malaysia for the support of Kazakhstan's candidacy for membership of ASEM.
Considering the forthcoming visit of the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the region, the parties noted that in the course of planned meetings with the leaders and foreign ministers of the countries will discuss issues of bilateral cooperation in political, trade-economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres, as well as interaction within the international organizations. Memorandums on cooperation between the foreign ministries will be signed during the visit.
The MFA RK noted that during the visit to these countries will be focused implementation of the agreements reached earlier in the course of meetings at the highest levels.