Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has hailed the fact that international developments are increasingly proving that a new era of multilateralism is taking shape in the world.
"As unilateralism is on the decline in the world, the countries of the region and regional organizations decide on the future of the region and the world," the president of the Islamic Republic was cited as stating on Tuesday.
Raisi was greeting visiting Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Kairat Sarybay.
The CICA, Raisi underscored, could be used successfully to further boost interaction among its members. Iran was prepared to share its experience with other CICA member states, whether in the economic sphere, in science and technology, or on how to fight terrorism and organized crime, Raisi said. As Kairat Sarybay applauded the Islamic Republic's progress in a plethora of fields, he singled out the welcome decision of CICA heads of member states to establish a fund for supporting mutual interaction.
The CICA was initiated by former President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1992 through his speech at the 47th UN General Assembly. The underlying idea was to create a forum for Asian countries to enhance cooperation toward the promotion of peace, security, and stability in the region.
The intergovernmental forum boasts 28 member countries, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, PRC, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, India, Qatar, Iraq, Republic of Korea, Iran, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Jordan, and Kuwait.
Speaking to the media after attending the Sixth CICA Conference in the Kazakh capital Astana last year, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi denounced what he said was Western governments' interference in the West Asia region. Raisi underscored the "endogenous nature of security" in Asia and said the intervention of foreign countries was not the “solution to the region's problems.”
The Iranian president has repeatedly gone on record as underscoring Tehran's commitment to a policy of multipolarity and sustainable integration.
"The construction of a multipolar world cannot be stopped. There are already many centers of power outside the Western world," Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said at the General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies in 2022.