SHANGHAI, May 19  -- China and Kazakhstan on Monday vowed to jointly promote the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) to play a bigger role in the international arena during China's chairmanship from 2014 to 2016.

The pledge was made in a joint declaration issued during the China visit of President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is here for the upcoming 4th CICA summit to be held in Shanghai as well as a state visit at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi held talks with Nazarbayev in Shanghai on Monday afternoon.

The joint declaration said CICA, a trans-Asia security forum, has played a positive role to promote its members' mutual trust and dialogue and maintain regional security and stability. They believed the 4th summit will achieve its goals.

The joint declaration said China and Kazakhstan will further strengthen their political mutual trust, promote reciprocal cooperation, consolidate friendship and achieve common development and prosperity.

It said the two countries will maintain close engagement of state leaders, conduct regular discussion on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues.

China and Kazakhstan reaffirmed that they will not conduct any activity that may sabotage the other's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, not to sign with the third country any treaties that may harm the other's sovereign and security interests, not to allow any organization or group to conduct any activity on its own territory that may harm the other's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, the joint declaration said.

The two countries vowed to continue to strengthen their coordination and cooperation within multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and CICA, to jointly cope with global and regional challenges, maintain their common interests in joint efforts, so as to safeguard the peace and security of the region and the world as a whole, according to the joint declaration.

China and Kazakhstan will support the United Nations to play a core role in global affairs and strengthen coordination within such multilateral frameworks, and promote the international system to be fair and reasonable, the joint declaration said.

As members of the SCO, the two countries hailed the role of the organization as an important platform to maintain regional security and stability, and to promote its members' shared economic and cultural development.

The two countries will support SCO to play a more active role in regional affairs, and to have a stronger mechanism and better function in anti-terrorism and fight against drug trade. They will further enhance coordination and cooperation within SCO, and enhance cooperation in such areas as security, economy and culture to make unremitting efforts for a region with long-term peace and common prosperity, the joint declaration said.

China will actively support Kazakhstan to hold the 13th SCO prime ministers' meeting this year, the joint declaration said.

The CICA was established in 1992 as a forum for dialogue and consultations. It now has 24 member countries and 13 observers.