State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir on Thursday reaffirmed Bangladesh's commitment to advance regional cooperation among the Asian countries.

While speaking at the plenary session of the 7th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku, the State Minister conveyed Bangladesh's full support to CICA's transformation into a full-fledged international regional organization with a clear legal status, a strengthened Secretariat, predictable financing and effective decision-making.

In his statement, he put forward three concrete proposals on implementation of results-oriented sectoral projects backed by formal follow-up mechanisms to build meaningful partnerships among member states, organizing more in-person events to foster wider stakeholder participation and strengthening exchanges among member states' ICT institutions and develop confidence-building measures for a safe, open and trusted digital space to address emerging challenges in ICT and AI.

This year, the 7th CICA summit is taking place under the chairmanship of Azerbaijan with a theme, "A Stronger CICA: Connectivity, Digitalization, and Sustainable Growth in Asia," reflects priorities of vital importance to the peoples of Asia.

During the summit, Lao PDR become the 29th member of this Pan-Asian forum established in 1999 with a view to promoting peace, security and stability across ASIA.

The summit also endorsed the Chairmanship of Azerbaijan for 2026-28 and the appointment of Sultan Hajiyev as the next Secretary General of CICA.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh staged a walkout during the Israeli president's address at the seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku.

The Bangladesh delegation, led by State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir, walked out of the conference hall as the Israeli president began delivering his speech at the summit, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Representatives of several other countries also joined the walkout, boycotting the Israeli president's address.

The delegations left the conference hall in protest during the Israeli president's speech.

The seventh CICA summit is being held in the Azerbaijani capital, bringing together leaders and senior representatives of participating countries to discuss regional cooperation, security and confidence-building measures across Asia.