Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo Monday left Beijing for Istanbul, Turkey, to attend the third summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA) scheduled on Tuesday.

As the special representative of President Hu Jintao, Dai will attend the meeting at the invitation of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, said a news release of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

CICA, initiated by Nazarbayev, is a forum aiming to unite Asian countries and strengthen cooperation in Asia.