CICA is Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Russia, S. Korea, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Uzbekistan and Vietnam are members. Its sixth summit took place in Astana on 12-13/10/2022. During the summit Kuwait became 28th member. Most countries were represented by Heads of States or Governments. India was represented neither by Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor by External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar but by Meenakshi Lekhi, Minister of State for External Affairs. President Droupadi Murmu does not represent India at summits. Indian media did not cover the summit.
Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan met during the summit. Erdogan accepted Putin’s gas hub proposal.
CICA decided to establish co-operation with Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
India did not attach much importance to CICA Summit. Perhaps Gujarat election is more important for Modi. On 14/10/2022 Election Commission announced Himachal Pradesh election schedule. It did not announce Gujarat election schedule. Date of voting in Himachal Pradesh is 12/11/2022 and of counting is 8/12/2022, 26 days gap. In 2017 also Gujarat election schedule was announced many days after Himachal Pradesh election schedule. During that time many changes were made to GST. Arun Jaitley was Finance Minister. This time it seems Modi has to visit some places and make some announcements. After that Election Commission will announce Gujarat election schedule. Voting will be before 8/12/2022 and counting will be together with that Himachal Pradesh on 8/12/2022. This is not fair to the people of Himachal Pradesh.
BJP has been in power in Gujarat since 1998. It did not have serious challenge from Congress. This year AAP won in Punjab. It is a challenger in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. BJP domination is under threat. Domestic politics trumps international events.