Chinese President Hu Jintao left Shanghai Friday afternoon for Kazakhstan to attend the second summit of the member states of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Almaty on June 17.

Hu is invited by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Hu's entourage includes State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, Director of the Policy Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Wang Huning, Deputy Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee Ling Jihua, Director of the President's Office Chen Shiju and Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui.

The CICA, a forum aimed at increasing security in Asia, was first proposed by Nazarbayev at the 47th UN general assembly in 1992. Its 17 members include China, Russia, Egypt, Afghanistan, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, India and Palestine.

The first summit of heads of state of the CICA member states took place on June 4, 2002, resulting in the creation of a new security forum for Asia.

Source: Xinhua