Bahraini Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa reiterated Bahrain's support to all efforts to transform the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) into an international organization working on promoting global peace and combating terrorism. Speaking on behalf of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in the opening of the 4th CICA summit, he underlined the need for Asian countries to build a strong alliance and reaffirmed Bahrain's support to the initiative launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding the "Silk Road Economic Belt". "Bahrain calls on relevant countries to take part in it with a contemporary vision so as to boost historical values binding the Asian countries with Europe," he said. He described the summit as a precious opportunity to boost the concept of co-existence between the Asian people and hold talks on sensitive issues like security, protecting the environment and sustainable development, notably after the international discussions of the development agenda for the post-2015 period.
