🎙 Remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Plenary Session of the 7th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (Baku, October 15, 2026)

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Over the past four years, challenging as this period has been, first Astana and then Baku, at the helm of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (#CICA), have made notable progress in strengthening our regional platform.

New mechanisms have been established: a financial summit, a women’s council and a partnership network of leading universities. The Secretariat has been significantly strengthened, including through broader geographical representation among its staff.

CICA’s voice is increasingly heard at multilateral events. Growing interest in its activities attests to its appeal.

🇱🇦 In this regard, we congratulate Laos on joining the Conference.

The system of international relations is undergoing fundamental changes. A new, fairer #MultipolarWorld order is taking shape before our eyes.

Against this backdrop, a clear message is emerging from Greater Eurasia: countries need to advance together, ensuring equal and indivisible security for all, whereby no State’s security can be ensured at the expense of the security of others. This philosophy is clearly reflected in the final declaration to be adopted at the conclusion of our meeting.

This shared outlook drives our efforts to create a stable and predictable political and economic environment across the Eurasian continent, conducive to deeper, mutually beneficial practical cooperation.

👉 We invite our partners to join us in drafting a political document on diversity and multipolarity in the 21st century that would apply across Eurasia.

We discussed this initiative with many of the countries represented here on the sidelines of the high-level week of the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly in New York. We will continue these discussions at the Fourth Conference on Eurasian Security, to be held in Minsk in early November.

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We are convinced that CICA’s transformation towards a pan-Eurasian outlook, in keeping with the times, is a natural path for our association, dictated by objective realities.

Many participating countries are Eurasian in character, and some geographically as well. Our shared task is to adapt the Conference to new realities and harness its potential to promote growth and prosperity across the continent.

Today, the constructive atmosphere within our platform stems from a shared commitment to broad, pragmatic cooperation.

☝️ Not least because of its membership, CICA is unencumbered by contrived political constructs such as the “rules-based order” or bloc-based approaches designed to serve the interests and convenience of insiders alone.

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