BAKU: Afghanistan remained unrepresented at the seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which opened in Baku on Thursday, despite recent efforts by the Taliban to restore the country’s participation in the regional organisation.
Afghanistan has been a full member of CICA since 1999, but the Taliban authorities have yet to secure representation at its high-level meetings since the collapse of the former Afghan government in 2021.
The absence underscores the challenges facing the Taliban regime in re-establishing Afghanistan’s role in regional diplomatic forums, despite continued efforts to engage with international and regional organisations.
CICA comprises 28 member states, representing around 90 per cent of Asia’s territory and population. Its members include China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, Türkiye, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Palestine and Central Asian countries.
The summit is being hosted by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Azerbaijan’s presidential office said heads of state and government from participating countries had arrived in Baku on Thursday.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also travelled to the Azerbaijani capital to attend the summit. Israel, like Afghanistan, holds full membership of CICA.
Taliban seek renewed engagement
The Taliban authorities have sought in recent months to increase Afghanistan’s participation in CICA activities. On 8 July, Mohammad ur-Rahman Rahmani, chargé d’affaires at the Taliban embassy in Kazakhstan, met CICA Secretary-General Kairat Sarybay at the organisation’s headquarters.
Bakhtar News Agency, which is controlled by the Taliban, reported that the meeting focused on Afghanistan’s membership, greater participation in CICA meetings and activities, and the country’s role in regional cooperation. However, these efforts have not resulted in Taliban representation at the Baku summit.
Afghanistan’s membership remains intact
CICA Secretary-General Kairat Sarybay has previously said Afghanistan remains a full member of the organisation and that its seat is reserved, despite the absence of an Afghan delegation from meetings. In 2023, Sarybay confirmed that Afghanistan was not participating in CICA events but that its membership would continue.
He also highlighted Afghanistan’s significance for Central Asian security, stressing the need to prevent terrorist threats from originating on Afghan territory and to ensure the country does not become a safe haven for terrorist groups.
Despite the lack of an Afghan representative, CICA has maintained contacts on Afghanistan-related issues. In August 2025, its secretariat held its first informal consultative meeting on engagement with Afghanistan.
Last summit participation in 2019
Afghanistan’s last confirmed participation in a CICA summit was on June 15, 2019, when Abdullah Abdullah, then chief executive of the former Afghan government, represented the country at the fifth summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Following the collapse of the former government and the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, Afghanistan was left without a representative at the sixth summit, held in Astana in 2022.
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Although Afghanistan appeared first among the member states in the final list of participating delegations, the section identifying its representative and position was left blank. The country’s situation has nevertheless remained on the agenda of CICA meetings over the past five years.
What is CICA?
Established as an initiative proposed by then-Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the United Nations General Assembly in 1992, CICA is a multilateral platform for dialogue and cooperation among Asian countries.
Its first meeting of foreign ministers took place in 1999, while its inaugural summit was held in 2002. The organisation’s permanent secretariat is based in Astana, Kazakhstan.
CICA promotes cooperation on security, counterterrorism, trade, transit, energy, the environment, technology and economic development. Decisions are made by consensus among member states.
While Afghanistan retains its formal membership, the absence of Taliban representatives from successive summits highlights the gap between the country’s continued institutional standing and the regime’s efforts to restore its diplomatic presence in regional forums.
