ASTANA — China and Kazakhstan pledged in Astana on Dec 14 to deepen collaboration in the area of confidence-building measures, to allow CICA, an inter-governmental forum for dialogues on regional security issues in Asia, to play a greater role in the future.

In a joint communique issued during Premier Li Keqiang’s official visit to Kazakhstan, the two countries agreed that they will work with other members of CICA, or the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, to intensify cooperation in related areas and improve the mechanism of this multi-national platform.

With China and Kazakhstan being two of its 26 members, CICA is aimed at enhancing cooperation toward promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.

The idea of CICA was first proposed by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in October 1992 at the 47th Session of the UN General Assembly.

China assumes the chairmanship of CICA for the 2014-2016 period.

In the joint communique, China and Kazakhstan both spoke highly of the outcomes of the fourth CICA summit held in Shanghai, China in May 2014.

They vowed to abide by all the principles set in the declaration of the Shanghai meeting and strive to put into practice the agreements reached then, according to the document.

Li arrived in Astana earlier on Dec 14 for an official visit to the Central Asian country as well as a prime ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.